Luxury Developers Turn Tennis Courts Into Grand-Scale Racquet Clubs

• Shell Bay's Racquet Club spans seven tennis courts across four playing surfaces on 150 acres.
• SoLé Mia, developed by LeFrak and Turnberry, built the first floating pickleball court at a U.S. residential property, plus a 100,000-square-foot Reserve Padel club.
• Sutton Tower and 250 West 96th Street fit a multi-sport simulator and a regulation squash court into Manhattan towers.
• Edgeworth in West Palm Beach and Four Seasons Private Residences Lake Austin are building racquet clubs set to open by the end of the decade.

Seven tennis courts spread across four playing surfaces. A padel club with 100,000 square feet and its own floating pickleball court. A regulation squash court with a basketball hoop bolted to the wall inside a Manhattan tower. As this week's US Open puts racquet sports back in front of a national audience, luxury residential developers are no longer treating a single tennis court as a box to check. From South Florida to the Jersey Shore to the Texas Hill Country, they are building out full racquet programs, some spanning entire wings of a property, designed to keep residents playing year-round. The bet underneath all of it: that the surge of interest in tennis, pickleball and padel is not a pandemic-era blip but a permanent shift in how residents want to spend their time.

Why Developers Are Building Bigger

Developers building out these amenities are reading the same shift in resident behavior, just adapting it to whatever footprint they have. In New York, JVP Development partner Van Nguyen points to a version tailored to vertical living.

"Racquet sports have become an important part of how New Yorkers stay active and socialize, so we wanted to incorporate them in ways that feel natural to each building."

The common thread across every project: developers see racquet sports, pickleball especially, as a rare amenity that pulls residents of every age into the same space.

South Florida Builds the Full Club

Shell Bay, the 150-acre, Auberge-serviced enclave anchored by a 20-story, 108-residence tower overlooking a Greg Norman-designed golf course, went furthest. Its Racquet Club, led by former world No. 69 and Grand Slam coach Jesse Levine, spans seven tennis courts across four distinct surfaces: a Wimbledon-style grass court, a European red clay court, a hard court and four Har-Tru green clay courts, making it one of only two clubs in the country with all four Grand Slam surfaces. The club has already drawn a serious tennis crowd, with members including Jessica Pegula and doubles legends Bob and Mike Bryan. Four pickleball courts and two padel courts round out the offering, alongside custom racquet fitting and in-house stringing.

For CEO Alex Witkoff, the Racquet Club is the flagship of what Shell Bay is trying to be.

"We set out to make Shell Bay the most complete private club community in the country. Our Racquet Club reflects that ambition, with tennis across all four playing surfaces, professional-level instruction, exceptional padel and pickleball facilities, and a year-round calendar of tournaments and events. It's an offering that rivals the very best racquet clubs anywhere and has become a defining part of the Shell Bay experience."

Fifteen miles north, SoLé Mia is taking a different angle on scale. The 184-acre, multibillion-dollar master-planned community in North Miami, developed by LeFrak and Turnberry, built its recreation program around a seven-acre swimmable Crystal Lagoon and used it to install the first floating pickleball court of its kind at a residential property. Steps away, Reserve Padel opened its first permanent location on the property: a two-story, 100,000-square-foot club with six outdoor and four indoor padel courts under 35-foot ceilings, plus a gym, sauna, steam room, cold plunge and an onsite Pura Vida outpost. Coaching runs through the Juan Martín Díaz Academy, and together the floating court and the padel club add another layer to SoLé Mia's recreational lineup for residents and visitors alike.

Further north in West Palm Beach, Related Ross is still building its answer. Edgeworth, a 184-residence, two-tower condominium designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox along South Flagler Drive, is developing a residents-only racquet club with Set Point Tennis that will run tennis, padel and pickleball programming, clinics, junior development and a pro shop with on-site stringing and grip customization. It is slated to open in 2029.

New York and New Jersey Fit More Into Less Space

Without South Florida's acreage, developers around New York are folding racquet sports into existing towers rather than building freestanding clubs. At Sutton Tower, the tallest residential building along Manhattan's East Side waterfront, a multi-sport simulator inside the five-floor, 22,000-square-foot Sutton Club lets residents play virtual racquet sports year-round alongside ping pong, boxing and a 50-foot indoor pool. A few miles north, 250 West 96th Street built a regulation squash court, equipped with a basketball hoop for double duty, into its wellness program.

Nguyen says residents have already found their own uses for the amenities.

"At Sutton Tower, the sports simulator gives residents the flexibility to practice and play year-round, while the squash court at 250 West 96th Street offers a unique setting for a fast-paced, highly social sport. We've even seen residents set up a pickleball net in the squash court, demonstrating how they are adapting the space to suit their interests. Both amenities reflect our focus on creating versatile spaces that residents will genuinely use and appreciate."

Across the Hudson in Long Branch, New Jersey, Lincoln Equities Group took a more traditional outdoor approach. Liora Club & Residences, a 128-home condominium one block from the beach with more than 41,000 square feet of amenities, built two dedicated pickleball courts alongside its pool, private cabanas and lawn games.

For CEO Lance Bergstein, the courts fit the beach town's social rhythm.

"When designing Liora's outdoor amenities, we focused on the active, social lifestyle people value at the Jersey Shore. Pickleball was a natural fit because it is accessible and appeals across generations, so we saw an opportunity to integrate two dedicated courts alongside the pool, private cabanas, lawn games and gathering spaces. Together, these amenities give residents more ways to stay active, spend time outdoors and connect with neighbors."

Austin Bets on an Indoor Club by the Lake

Four Seasons Private Residences Lake Austin, the brand's first purely residential private resort, is taking the South Florida approach to a landlocked market. Spread across 210 acres with nearly a mile of shoreline on Lake Austin, the community is building a 76,000-square-foot Indoor Sports Club as part of more than 100,000 square feet of private amenities. It will include an indoor clay tennis court, pickleball and padel courts, private training rooms, golf simulators and a full-size basketball court, giving residents access to court sports regardless of the Texas heat.

Scale Follows the Site

How big these programs get tracks directly with how much land a developer has to work with. In South Florida and Austin, where acreage allows it, developers are building freestanding clubs with real courts, professional coaching staffs and, in Shell Bay's case, a tournament calendar. In dense Manhattan towers, where a tennis court isn't physically possible, developers are substituting simulators and squash courts and letting residents improvise the rest, as Nguyen noted with the makeshift pickleball nets appearing inside 250 West 96th Street's squash court. Both are real investments, but they represent different bets: destination clubs built to draw outside members and press, versus space-efficient amenities built to keep existing residents from needing to leave the building.

What's Next

Edgeworth's racquet club is still four years from opening, and the rest of the West Palm Beach market will be watching whether it can support a Shell Bay-style model. Shell Bay itself is already running a full calendar of tournaments and events, and its roster of touring pros gives other developers a working benchmark for what a residential racquet club can become.