The Picklr Opens 27,000-Square-Foot Indoor Pickleball Club in Seattle's Fremont

The Picklr dropped 27,000 square feet of dedicated indoor court space into Seattle's Fremont neighborhood on April 4, converting the former Theo Chocolate building at 124 N. 35th Street, once North America's first organic fair-trade chocolate factory, into 10 permanent indoor courts. For a sport that now claims 19.8 million U.S. players, a 311% jump over just three years according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, the opening represents exactly what the Puget Sound market has been short on: large-format, all-weather indoor capacity with a structured programming calendar.

For retreat and event organizers running groups of 12 to 24, the court math is the first thing to understand. Ten simultaneous courts support roughly 40 players in singles or 80 in doubles, with a fully fenced championship-sized court set apart for tournament play and exhibition matches. That fenced court is the facility's most significant asset for multi-day events: it's designed for structured brackets, pro appearances, and livestreamed matches in a way the surrounding open-play courts are not.

Pricing works on a membership model. Adult play memberships start at $109 per month; the adult unlimited tier, which includes leagues, tournaments, social events, and four P-Series clinic passes, runs $141 per month. Junior unlimited sits at $74 per month and family unlimited at $308. Non-members can still book individual courts and clinics through The Picklr app without a monthly commitment, which gives occasional groups a path in without requiring everyone to sign up. For a 12-person retreat group on the adult unlimited tier, total monthly access runs $1,692. A 24-person group at the same tier lands at $3,384 for the month, though single-session court bookings let organizers pay for only the days they need. The reservation system runs through The Picklr's app with a seven-day advance booking window and one open reservation active at a time per member. On peak weekend mornings, booking at the front of that window is not optional.

Owner Rajiv Khatri describes the club as "Fremont's third space," and the programming backs that framing: leagues, social events, clinics, and tournaments are built into the membership rather than priced separately at higher tiers. The four P-Series clinic passes bundled into the $141 unlimited membership make instructor-led sessions viable for a two-day retreat without contracting outside coaches.

The closest indoor competitor is Picklewood Courts and Kitchen, the eatertainment venture developed by entrepreneur Nathan Talbot and chef Ethan Stowell in Seattle's Industrial District south of SoDo. Picklewood's 11 courts split seven indoors and four outdoors, and its courtside dining and restaurant model suits social retreats anchored around food and drinks. The Picklr Fremont is the stronger fit for groups prioritizing court volume, structured competition formats, and brand consistency across multiple trips: a Picklr membership is valid at every franchise location nationwide.

The location carries specific historical weight worth noting. Pickleball was invented in the summer of 1965 at Joel Pritchard's cabin at Pleasant Beach on Bainbridge Island, approximately 20 miles across Puget Sound from the Fremont address. Pritchard, who later served as a U.S. Congressman and Washington State Lieutenant Governor, co-invented the game with Barney McCallum and Bill Bell using improvised ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball on an old badminton court. The sport they invented there to entertain bored children now drives a franchise network valued at $59 million and expanding into Canada, Japan, and eight additional global regions by end of 2026. Seattle's newest indoor club sits almost exactly where that arc started.