Pickles at Forté Revitalizing Downtown Honolulu: A new indoor pickleball facility, Pickles at Forté, is part of Avalon Group’s plan to bring more visitors to downtown Honolulu. Opened in January, the space offers extended hours, climate control, food, and social areas, attracting a steady crowd and supporting nearby businesses.
Creating a Downtown Destination
Avalon Group Chief Executive Officer Christine Camp purchased the former Walmart location and transformed it into pickleball courts. She hopes the project will help revitalize the area. The facility recently extended its weekday hours to midnight and weekend hours to 10 p.m., meeting the demand of players who wanted to play later.
Players Enjoy the Convenience
Dayton, a player from Kahaluʻu, said,
“It’s an awesome location. It’s right in downtown. It’s convenient, I think, for most people to play here. It’s got AC, furniture, TVs, everything you need, pickleball, food, yeah, easy to hang out here all day, for sure.
He also supports creating a business improvement district to improve safety.
A New Crowd and New Energy
Director of Operations Martina Kostalova noted that the venue stays busy until closing time.
“We are open until midnight on the weekdays, 10 p.m. on the weekends, but we are basically busy until midnight,”. “It’s a mostly young crowd. Before we even opened,
we asked people, and basically they told us that the only reason they used to stop on public courts was because the lights went out at 10 p.m., and they would totally stay until midnight, and they do.”
Future Plans for Sports and Housing
This week, Pickles at Forté will host two town halls on the business improvement district plan, Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. and Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Camp also plans to add a rooftop padel court, the first public one on Oʻahu, and build apartments on-site, making sports facilities easily accessible to residents.
Improving the Downtown Experience
From the rooftop of the Topa towers, Camp explained that a business improvement district could bring extra services beyond what city funding allows.
“They’ve done it all over the mainland, but our prime example is Waikīkī,”. “Some key leaders 20 years ago decided that this was time for the businesses to really take over and add services because status quo was not acceptable,
and they were willing to pay to have those improvements and level of service that maybe the city, through their tax dollars, just weren’t able to support, and it’s been a huge success. So we know that it works. So we’d like to see this in downtown Honolulu.”
News in Brief: Pickles at Forté Revitalizing Downtown Honolulu
Pickles at Forté, an indoor pickleball facility in downtown Honolulu, is drawing new visitors with extended hours and social amenities. Avalon Group CEO Christine Camp plans to add a rooftop padel court, build apartments, and support a business improvement district to boost safety and attract more people to the area.