St. Pete Athletic celebrating grand opening this weekend

St. Pete Athletic Club opens

Billed as St. Pete's urban country club, The St. Pete Athletic has opened its doors and is celebrating its grand opening this weekend. It's a project three years in the making. FOX 13's Kailey Tracy reports. 

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla, - Dubbed St. Pete’s urban country club, St. Pete Athletic has opened its doors and is celebrating its grand opening this weekend.

What we know:

Friday's pickleball tournament kicked off the weekend. On Saturday, there will be a ribbon cutting with St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch, pickleball clinics and mascots from the local professional teams will play too. Sunday will be a wellness day with yoga, pilates, facials and more.

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The 50,000 square foot club boasts 14 pickleball courts, two paddle courts, six table tennis, a full restaurant, three bars, a gym, sauna, cold plunge, fitness studio and lounge for members and more. 

The space is open to the public.

Thirty-five-thousand square feet of space is open now, including eight pickleball courts, the restaurant and bars and all the clubhouse member suite amenities. In February, the new building that’s attached will open. It will have two more paddle courts and six more pickleball courts.

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Dig deeper:

It’s a project three years in the making.

"A lot of work has gone into it, dozens of people being involved," Reuben Pressman, one of the managing partners for St. Pete Athletic, said. "Our team is nearly 100 staff that we've hired to put the space together. Again, it's great to kind of cap off the initial creation of the project, but now all the work starts to build the programming, bring the community here, make sure the experiences are top-notch and what we want it to be. But yeah, I mean, it feels amazing to finally have the project open for people to see it and be able to experience it."

The club had a soft opening on December 11, and the first week was members only. Managing partners are from St. Pete, including the owners of Intermezzo and Green Bench Brewing.

"It’s amazing to be able to build something like this as like an amenity and a gift to the city, of course, but it's really all about bringing the community together and, so, having a space that's so multifaceted. While we're sold out on memberships, again, we are open to the public and half our members don't play. They've signed up to be a part of the community aspect, the social club side," Pressman said.

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What's next:

Anyone can reserve a court on the St. Pete Athletics app. This weekend, they’ve waived the court fees, and you don’t have to make any reservations for the courts. It’s usually $25 to play all day for non-members during the week and $40 on weekends. Court reservations pick back up again on Monday. 

St. Pete Athletic is located at 680 28th Street South in St. Pete, just off the Pinellas Trail. It’s open from 5 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.