Ayala Land backs P500 million Vermosa tennis, pickleball complex plan

Ayala Land’s P500 million bet on Vermosa was more than a real estate amenity. By locking in a 2.5-hectare International Tennis Center with 16 pickleball courts, the company and the Philippine Tennis Center for Excellence Inc. put a permanent footprint behind a sport that has been living too often on borrowed space.

The plan called for eight tennis competition courts, one center court, a gym, pro shop, possible golf simulator, café or restaurant, bar, and athlete quarters that could house 60 to 80 trainees. That mix tells you exactly what this project is trying to be: an elite training base with enough public-facing hardware to keep the courts active beyond a private-academy calendar. The partners aimed to secure permits by September 2026, break ground in the fourth quarter, start construction by January 2027, and open by April 2028 under a 20-year lease.

The pickleball angle matters because the Philippine market is no longer an afterthought. The Philippine Pickleball Federation is recognized by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee, and it launched an official national ranking system and participant registry on January 1, 2026. That gives the sport something it has lacked for years: a formal ladder from casual play to organized competition. Vermosa fits that shift. It is not being sold as a novelty court set. It is being built into a pathway.

The project also extends the Philippine Tennis Academy’s mission, which began in 2011 and was shaped by Oscar Hilado, who died at 87 in 2025. The academy’s long game has been to find and develop young talent nationwide, and the new center is meant to widen that lane rather than narrow it. Alex Eala stands as the obvious model for that dual track of college opportunity and professional ambition.

Ayala Land’s broader campus makes the investment more significant. Vermosa is a 752-hectare mixed-use estate in Imus and Dasmariñas, about 45 minutes to an hour from Metro Manila by private car. Its existing 8-hectare sports hub already includes athletics, aquatics, recreation, a fitness and sports science lab, and a 30-room Athlete’s House, and it has hosted national groups such as the Triathlon Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Rugby Football Union, and the Philippine Athletic and Track and Field Association.

That is the real story here. The new center is not just about courts. It is about whether pickleball in the Philippines can move from mall pop-ups and one-off events into a structured ecosystem with coaching, rankings, and year-round access. Ayala Malls proved there was demand when it launched the country’s first mall-based pickleball court at Market! Market! in 2023. Vermosa now gives that demand somewhere bigger to go.