EVERETT — Wearing their club merch and carrying paddles, a couple dozen pickleball players from across Snohomish County filled Everett City Council chambers Wednesday to push city leaders to approve a plan for a new pickleball facility in the Riverfront development.
They got their wish. The council unanimously approved the developer’s proposal for a pickleball complex, in place of original plans for a neighborhood movie theater.
The Riverfront development has been in the works since 2009. Residents now occupy 190 townhouses and 235 single-family homes on the property. Construction is in the early stages for a 31,290-square-foot commercial and retail site in the neighborhood’s center.
That center lot is set to be the future home of what appears to be a Topgolf-esque food and recreation center, but for paddle-based sports.
City Planning Director Yorik Stevens-Wajda said the facility will include indoor and outdoor space for pickleball, tennis, ping-pong, golf, squash and racquetball. It will also be complete with a restaurant and “beverage services.” It’s still unknown what company will run the establishment.
In November, the developers said they were in talks with a Midwest-based company to lease the space. Stevens-Wajda said Wednesday the lease has been secured.
Wednesday’s vote came after developers approached the council in November for approval on changing plans from a cinema to pickleball. The City Council delayed a decision until this week.
Not only is pickleball the fastest-growing sport in the nation, but it’s the state sport, said Kate Van Gent, Seattle Metro Pickleball Association president and Mukilteo Everett Pickleball Club member. Pickleball was created in 1965 on Bainbridge Island in Washington.
“Pickleball is the epitome of build it and they will come,” said Nancy Purcell, president of the Mukilteo Everett Pickleball Club. “We have no doubt that our community will support the facility for years to come.”
Council members voiced support for the changed plans. Council member Ben Zarlingo said pickleball has grown in popularity in recent years. The movie industry, not so much.
“This is a better option, so I’ll support it,” he said.
Shelter Holdings, the company developing the 70-acre property along the Snohomish River, placed a hold on the cinema plan in 2021, blaming the pandemic.
“It’s been a difficult time for cinema operators,” Stevens-Wajda said Wednesday. “A new cinema development just does not appear possible in the foreseeable future.”
Additionally, the city filed for and was awarded a grant for the Eclipse Mill Park portion of the development. The park is located on the bank of the river, set to be completed in 2025 with a playground and dock. The council permitted the developers to change their construction schedule for the park due to the additional funding sources.
Riverfront Everett offers mostly market-rate one- and two- bedrooms, with monthly rents ranging from $1,840 to more than $3,150.
The development touts coworking spaces, a bike room and a dog washing area.
These new buildings are part of the new southeast Everett neighborhood, one that’s been reclaimed from an industrial area once dominated by the Eclipse and Simpson mills and a landfill, the site of the infamous Everett Tire Fire in 1984.
The Riverfront property sits along the west bank of the Snohomish River, within the historic Lowell neighborhood. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s, the Lowell neighborhood was an industrial economic center with logging camps and sawmills. The neighborhood thrived with industry and used the Snohomish River as a vehicle for transporting lumber and raw materials.
The city spent decades — and nearly $90 million — to clean up and prepare the land for homes, shops and a 3-acre city park.
The landfill has undergone extensive remediation and is monitored by the state Department of Ecology.
The latest addition includes plans for 1,250 apartments and seven or eight buildings.
Herald writer Janice Podsada contributed to this report.
Ashley Nash: 425-339-3037; ashley.nash@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @ash_nash00.
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