The former Saks Fifth Avenue department store at the Stamford Center Mall will soon be given new life as a premier downtown attraction. The empty space is set to be converted into the nation’s largest pickleball facility, comprising 28 individual courts across two stories.
The rebirth of the space is the brainchild of Pickleball America (PBA), whose board consists of a group of Stamford businesspeople including Jay Waldner, Jay Ross and Joe Schipani, the “Chief Pickleball Officer”and brother of Mia Schipani, who is both a board member and the realtor with Houlihan Lawrence who brokered the deal between the Stamford Center Mall and the PBA.
Scattered throughout the venue will be spaces for players and spectators to sit and take in other games, drink and snack vendors, and a pro-shop. And the pickleball courts’nets will be fully removable, thus enabling the entire facility to serve as a venue for dozens of different events, including concerts and conferences.
For those unfamiliar with pickleball, the game was created in 1965 by businessmen in Washington State in search of a sport they could play with their entire families. Originally wanting to play badminton, they discovered the summer house they were visiting was not properly equipped. They decided to substitute a plastic ball with holes in it and ping pong paddles for rackets, and over the course of the summer developed a game that would eventually become a national phenomenon by the 2010s, complete with tournaments offering cash prizes and trophies.
Phase 1 of the Stamford endeavor, which is slated to open this spring, will bring the first floor of the former Saks space online with 14 of the planned courts. The space has entrances both from within the mall proper and externally through Veteran’s Park.
According to Mia Schipani, the vision for the space is to create a broader activation of Stamford Town Center akin to that offered by the Palisades Mall in New Jersey.
“They have indoor ice skating, skiing, they are referenced as the newest generation of that experiential ”˜bring the whole family’destination,”she said. “We could open up a childcare center right here so their parents can come and have childcare and socialize.”
“It’s all about socialization,”Waldner said, noting that many UConn Stamford students are transplants or commuters who are looking for social interaction. “They could be people in school and not necessarily 17- or 18-year-olds, but 20- or 30-year-olds that have kids. They could drop off the kids, go to school, play a little pickle. There could be cross pollination. The benefit of being in the mall is we could attract these industry partners to be right outside.”
Waldner is also the principal of Waldner’s, the global office furnishing company. He plans to outfit the space in a “Brooklyn Industrial”style with furnishings and design by Safavieh, the chic New York City creative studio which already has a show room in the mall just a stone’s throw away from the future facility.
Waldner described a number of ongoing conversations with potential partners, from beverage companies to major league teams, facilitated by connections made through decades of furnishing the offices of key players in dozens of industries.
Locally, the PBA is discussing the possibility of collaboration with UConn Stamford to both provide access to students and potentially set up an internship program for sports management students. Discussions with Half-Full Brewery for a pickleball themed beer and cross promotions with Stamford community organizations are all being explored.
“We’re working together to revitalize the whole Stamford Town Center as this new sports center for the community,”Mia Schipani added. “There is no place for people to hang out in Stamford and this is going to be one of those focal points where people can come and play and hangout. They can just show up here, you don’t have to be a member and you don’t have to know how to play pickleball.”
Mia Schipani, who is also a board member of the Connecticut Convention and Sports Bureau, further emphasized that the potential for the space to host events outside of pickleball can be a major value add for the region.
“I know first-hand that this is a major addition to Fairfield County,”she said, noting the diverse requests for proposal that the space will be able to consider. “There’s endless uses for this space, this is an incredible opportunity for the hotels and businesses down here.”
