Queen City pickleball facility set to open this summer

Pickleball and cryotherapy will be central activities on tap at a southwest Springfield facility expected to open this summer.

The Pickle LLC and The Chilly Dill LLC are two separate businesses with the same ownership planned to launch in a 14,500-square-foot building being constructed adjacent to the Hampton Inn at 3350 E. Montclair St., near the U.S. Highway 65 and Battlefield Road intersection. The Pickle will offer four indoor courts for pickleball, as well as a training area. The south end of the building will house The Chilly Dill, a cryotherapy recovery center.

The owners are two married couples, Christie and Tim Blasi and Katie and Steven Miller. The couples own the building and property via The Big Pickle LLC.

“Katie and I are sisters, so it’s kind of become a little family project,” Christie Blasi said, noting she and her sibling fell in love with pickleball after taking up the sport three years ago. “We also feel very passionately about the cryotherapy piece. We think that’s just very beneficial for health and recovery and wellness in general, and so we thought it would be a good fit to merge them under one roof.”

The sisters say they’ve targeted an Aug. 1 launch for the businesses, declining to disclose estimated startup costs.

The Pickle will occupy roughly 9,000 square feet of the building, while The Chilly Dill, which will include two full-body electric cryotherapy units, a cold plunge tank and massage tables, will fill about 2,500 square feet.

“We’re currently looking for another vendor potentially in that spot,” Blasi said of around 2,000 more square feet in the building for lease. “We’ve got some possibilities, but we’re just not ready to put that out there yet.”

Dock Brothers Construction Co. is general contractor for the project designed by BRP Architects.

Miller, who is in-house counsel for Springfield-based Meridian Title Co., said the owners also are planning a lounge area for The Pickle with the possibility of serving adult beverages in the space. She said pickleball players will have 24/7 access to the courts, as the venue will offer memberships and reservations.

Noting all four of the owners were athletes in college, Blasi said their athletic background and desire to maintain an active lifestyle was what led them to pursue the venture.

“It’s trying to make sure that we can still stay active and stay in the game as long as our bodies will allow us,” she said. “We’re hoping having these facilities, you get the wellness aspect, the exercise part with the pickleball. Then you have the recovery aspect, which is hopefully helping to keep us all in the game a little bit longer.”

In addition to the new venture, the Blasis own and manage rental properties, including Villas at Eastgate, a housing community for adults who are 55 and older.