TapNPaddles — a pickleball venue with 12 courts, a restaurant — is planned for Wichita

Pickleballers in Wichita will have yet another place to play when TapNPaddles — a 35,000-square-foot pickleball venue — opens next year in District 96, the business park development near K-96 and Oliver that’s also home to an Aloft Hotel and Rail Hoppers restaurant.

The venue, owned by Kelli and Mike Ventling, is set to open in mid-2024 and will include 12 professional-level indoor pickleball courts, a full-service bar and restaurant, a pro shop, a covered outdoor patio, locker rooms and a 1,000 square-foot private event space, according to a news release.

TapNPaddles will offer regularly scheduled games players can join, courts that can be reserved for private play and a training academy for people who want to improve their games.

On Thursday morning, Mike Ventling visited the site of the future business, which is now a large, empty field just south of the Aloft hotel. He said that he and his wife, who live part time in Maize and part time in South Carolina, became interested in pickleball during the pandemic, and now they play all the time.

The sport has improved their health and helped them make new friends, he said, and he thinks that Wichita has room for a top-rate facility.

“What we’ve noticed is that the pickleball-playing community now is evolving away from this idea of, ‘Give me a court, any court’ to this idea where when they find a premium playing experience, they love it, and they keep coming back,” he said. “And that’s what we want to do.”

The facility will have courts that are to USA Pickleball standards with big walkways in between courts and a pro-level playing surface. The property also has space to grow, and Ventling said he’s considering building six to eight more courts in the future— possibly outdoor, possibly indoor.

People will be able to buy memberships to TapNPaddles, which will get them extra perks, like access to locker rooms. But people won’t have to be members to reserve a court, Ventling said. One of his main goals is to grow the sport and offer access to all.

The Ventlings are still planning the details of the venue’s restaurant and bar, he said, but TapNPaddles will serve “American fare, comfort food, bar and grill” type items.

“We want this to be casual,” he said. “We want the environment to be fun. We want it to be welcoming and inviting.”

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The Ventlings also are in “active discussions” to open a second location of TapNPaddles in another state, Ventling said.

Marque Peer, the vice president of development for District 96 owner Great Plains Ventures, said that he thinks TapNPaddles will be the perfect tenant for the area.

“We are just super excited about it,” he said. “It’s going to be great for the hotel. Activity creates activity, so it’s going to be great for all the restaurants that are here. I think everything is going to feed off of each other.”

Brett Harris of Landmark Commercial Real Estate represented the property owner in the deal.

Wichita’s passion for pickleball has grown over the past several years as have its options for places to play. In addition to Chicken N Pickle, the big pickleball venue that opened at 1240 N Greenwich in 2019, Derby added a big venue called The Sandbox last year.

The city of Wichita is also working on a “Pickleplex” in south Wichita.

Ventling said he hopes to start construction soon and have TapNPaddles ready by mid- to late summer.

“We think the community here is well positioned to welcome something like this,” he said. “There are a lot of great places here to play, and we just want to add to that.”