Five months after selecting a pickleball project to fill the vacant lot where Parking Structure 3 used to sit, the land, and city coffers, remain empty as the chosen vendors have yet to break ground on their evolving project and no rent is being paid on the location.
Exactly what will emerge on the empty lot is still in doubt as the project’s description has evolved and permit applications differ from some of the verbal descriptions of the current proposal.
Despite the lack of progress, DTSM CEO Andrew Thomas and Santa Monica City Economic Development Manager Jennifer Taylor both said recently that they expect the pickleball courts to open on 4th Street this month.
The saga began following the sudden withdrawal of Haibu in July 2024 and the abandonment of their plan to build a 360-degree immersive dome in the space. A new Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued in September of last year culminating with two business organizations competing for the space. The first was a New York City-based company called CityPickle, that operates 34 courts across seven venues in New York City and Philadelphia.
The second was a newly formed partnership between the co-owners of Pickle Pop at 1231 3rd Street (Stephanie McCaffrey and Erin Robertson), the co-owners of Pickletown at 1803 Lincoln Blvd (Mary Pat Faley and Ilene Feldman) and the owner of the Pickleball Center at 2505 Wilshire Blvd (Jonathan Neeter). At this point, the collaboration was calling itself Pickle Padel Paw.
The former proposed a concept with nine pickleball courts together with space for three food and beverage trucks and outdoor seating, generating a total income of approximately $1.4 million.
The latter ultimately offered a modified proposal that included four pickleball courts, two padel courts, beer garden seating, a food stand area and a “premium dog park.” Dogdrop, a venture capital backed dog daycare center founded in Los Angeles, was set to be the operational advisor of the canine component. According to their presentation, they also intended to partner with local food and beverage operators, including Heavy Handed, Santa Monica Brew Works and Thirst Trap Cocktails.
Pickle Padel Paw estimated a projected total annual revenue for the concept to be an ambitious $2.9 million with an initial goal of opening in early February.
A selection committee consisting of DTSM and City staff made a decision to recommend CityPickle, not Pickle Padel Paw and on September 24, 2024, DTSM notified CityPickle that they had been recommended as the winning bidder. The very next day, DTSM changed their stated RFP process and re-invited Pickle Padel Paw back into the process.
The proposals were seen by DTSM’s own Marketing & Business Development Committee and after this meeting, the offer to CityPickle was rescinded and instead given to Pickle Padel Paw. Unlike RFP pitches in the past, the process of the committee narrowing down the contenders before a final vote is taken after the top selections actually present to the directors, was not followed and the board’s vote only served as a formality.
In January of this year, Pickle Padel Paw – now calling itself Santa Monica Pickleball and Padel, LLC – instigated a lawsuit against its collaborative partner, Pickletown, alleging interference with a city development project.
McCaffrey claimed in the lawsuit that Pickletown owners Faley and Feldman initially agreed to invest $200,000 each in the project but backed out after the contract was awarded in November. Despite withdrawing, the defendants allegedly continued to interfere by demanding ownership stakes and attempting to control pricing.
As of March 4, that lawsuit was scheduled for dismissal.
“The parties have agreed to go their separate ways, claiming no interest in the other’s business, denying all allegations made against the other, and wishing nothing but good fortune to the other. Neither party, by issuing this statement, is admitting to any fact, matter, or thing,” said a statement from the plaintiffs.
In the meantime, the permit application changed to incorporate “eight paddle sports courts” not six, with no mention of a dog park or any food and beverage outlets. Shaina Denny, CEO of Dogdrop said that she had not heard anything more about this project “for quite some time.”
During the February 27 meeting of the DTSM board of directors, both Thomas and Taylor said McCaffrey had claimed one of her primary contractors had been impacted by the recent wildfires and as of Monday, March 10, no work whatsoever has been started on the site. Moreover, there has been no activity or updates on the City’s publicly accessible permitting site regarding this project since December of last year and its current status reads, “a resubmittal is required.”
Taylor also confirmed that Santa Monica Pickleball and Padel, LLC have not been paying rent on the site during this time. In stark contrast, the Haibu Media Group was asked to pay rent on the 1318 4th Street site without fail despite having setbacks of its own. Taylor said that the rent agreement had been organized through DTSM and that this was an attempt to offer some assistance.
The problem, according to Martin Ronzio-Garcia, Business & Community Development Manager for DTSM, is that padel courts require 14 ft-high back walls that are made of plexiglass. “What the move is going to be now is to pivot [solely] to pickleball, but then kind of work on the padel courts,” he said, adding, “Once the pickleball courts start, you know, they start having people on there, and they're also working on the the dog park component as well.”
At the time of going to press, there is a notice of pending design review on the chainlink fence at 1318 4th Street indicating that there is an application for a proposed “six-story, 100% affordable, mixed-use building consisting of 122 residential units above ground floor commercial and two levels of subterranean parking” by EAH Inc. WIth a hearing date set for Monday March 17, in City Council chambers at 7pm.
Since 2018, the City has been working on a plan to demolish Parking Structure 3, which was located at 1318 4th Street and replace it with a multi-level affordable housing project that would include ground floor retail and subterranean parking. The demolition of the 50-year-old parking lot began in March 2022 following a failed legal effort to stop the project. However, since demolition was completed in November 2022, the site has remained empty amid continued concern over the local economy.
scott.snowden@smdp.com
