New RARE Park opens in Roseville with four pickleball courts

Four gated pickleball courts are now part of a new gathering place on Sycamore Street, where RARE Park opened with a setup built for more than a quick game. The 1.86-acre site at 18185 Sycamore Street, on the north side of the RARE building, also includes a quarter-mile walking path, a picnic pavilion with barbecue grills, two cornhole courts, a community garden and an expanded playground.

The park was officially dedicated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 20, and the first activity on the ground made clear how the space is meant to work. Residents were already walking the path, trying the cornhole courts and warming up on the pickleball courts, turning the new park into an active stop inside the Recreation Center campus rather than a place to just look at and leave.

For pickleball players, the access details matter. The courts are gated, and visitors are told to check in with the Recreation Authority of Roseville and Eastpointe before using them. That puts RARE Park in a different category from a casual open-play strip of courts. It is a managed community amenity, tied directly to the authority’s operations and designed for repeat use.

The project carried a funding package of $873,300, built from a $698,300 Michigan Spark Grant and a $175,000 local match approved by the Recreation Authority board. Michigan’s Spark Grant program is aimed at creating and improving public recreation opportunities in communities hit hard by COVID-era disruption, and state officials have said the program has supported 29 communities with $24.2 million in funding to date.

The park’s opening also drew civic attention beyond Roseville. State Rep. Mai Xiong publicly recognized the project with a legislative tribute on May 21, underscoring how closely local recreation, state funding and neighborhood identity have become tied together here. The Recreation Authority says the park was completed in spring 2026, and Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick, Inc. helped develop the picnic pavilion, pickleball courts, community garden, walking path and expanded playground.

RARE Park now gives Roseville something more durable than a ceremonial opening. With pickleball, a garden, a trail and family-friendly space all working together, the site is set up to become the kind of place people return to, not just visit once for the ribbon cutting.