Onelife Fitness plans Hoover flagship with indoor pickleball courts

Onelife Fitness is bringing indoor pickleball to a $19 million flagship planned for 5569 Grove Blvd. in Hoover, a 65,000-square-foot club scheduled to break ground in October and open in 2027. The project is designed as a destination club, not a basic gym, and the company says it will create 100 local jobs.

That matters because Onelife is not treating Hoover as a one-off. The club will be the company’s third Birmingham-area location, joining McCalla and Lee Branch. Onelife’s Alabama page currently lists McCalla in Bessemer as open and Lee Branch in Birmingham as coming soon, both marketed with the kind of amenities that have become standard in the premium fitness lane: indoor saltwater pools, whirlpools, cold plunges, saunas, kids’ clubs, group classes, HydroMassage, red-light therapy and compression therapy.

The Hoover build takes that formula a step further by making pickleball part of the headline. That is the market signal here: indoor courts inside a 65,000-square-foot club tell you Onelife sees pickleball as a traffic driver, not a throw-in. In a market like Birmingham, where summer heat and weather can squeeze outdoor play, indoor courts give members a true year-round option. They also widen the club’s appeal beyond the usual fitness crowd. A player can come for a match, recover in the sauna or cold plunge, and stay for the rest of the afternoon.

Onelife has not laid out court counts, programming blocks or a tournament calendar for Hoover, but the scale of the building gives it room to do more than casual rec play. A club this size can support structured open play, beginner sessions, private coaching and, if the operator chooses to lean in, small events that could pull in players from across the Birmingham metro. For pickleball travelers, that is the difference between a local amenity and a place worth building a trip around.

The company’s Alabama expansion has moved quickly. Its first club in the state opened in McCalla, and the Lee Branch project has been tied to a former AMC Classic theater site and a $14 million investment. Hoover now becomes the clearest expression of the plan: repurpose a large footprint, stack wellness and social amenities, and make indoor pickleball part of the reason people walk through the door at 5569 Grove Blvd.