"There's always going to be four people there, and there's always going to be a game there, and if there isn't, then you can get a bite to eat or cold plunge." That's how Boca Paddle co-founder Brian Levine described the club he's building at North Park, a picture of saunas, a full bar, and courts that never sit empty. It's a good pitch. It's also, as of this month, a description of a building that still doesn't have a confirmed opening date.
Meanwhile, over on Yamato Road, the roof has been up since October. Patch Reef Park's covered pickleball complex opened last fall, and on any given evening it's full of exactly the kind of casual, walk-up games Levine is describing for a facility that hasn't cut its ribbon yet. Boca Raton didn't just add pickleball courts this year. It split its build into two very different tiers, one already running on city land at city prices, the other a private-public luxury club still working through a timeline that keeps sliding. Knowing which is which changes how you spend your Tuesday night.
What's Actually Open Right Now
Patch Reef Park's expansion gave the city 18 new covered pickleball courts, 16 standard plus two ADA-accessible, built alongside the park's existing 15 outdoor courts and 13 tennis courts. The grand opening last October drew nearly 400 players, according to local coverage, with Mayor Scott Singer, District Commissioners Erin Wright and Bob Rollins, and Boca Surge pros Rick Retamar and Brian Levine on hand for the ribbon cutting. Yes, that's the same Brian Levine building Boca Paddle. Boca's competitive pickleball scene is small enough that the same names show up on both sides of the public-private divide.
Reservations run through the PlayByPoint app, which handles bookings for clinics, tournaments, and open play. Court time for non-members runs a modest per-visit fee, cheapest for Palm Beach County residents and a bit more for everyone else. Members of Patch Reef Paddle & Racquet Club play free. One caveat worth knowing before you show up after a downpour: the city's own facility notes acknowledge the roof doesn't fully block rain intrusion, and courts can close temporarily after heavy storms until staff clears them for play.
The larger project driving the North Park build, a public-private partnership between the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District and Boca Paddle, is a different animal entirely.
Two Facilities, Two Very Different Deals
| Patch Reef Paddle & Racquet Club | Boca Paddle by CityPickle | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Open since October 2025 | Targeting Fall 2026 |
| Location | Patch Reef Park, Yamato Road | North Park, Jeffrey St. & NW 2nd Ave |
| Courts | 18 covered pickleball, 15 outdoor pickleball, 13 tennis | 19 pickleball, 6 padel |
| Ownership | Public, city-operated | Public land, privately built and run |
| Extras | Restrooms, pro shop, lit courts | Saunas, cold plunge, Farmer's Table restaurant, pro sports team |
The Bigger Build Is Still a Few Months Out, Again
Boca Paddle sits on the former Ocean Breeze Golf Course, the site the Beach and Park District bought in 2018 and has been converting into North Park ever since. The club broke ground in June 2025 with a red-carpet groundbreaking that pulled in CityPickle co-founders Erica Desai and Mary Cannon from New York, along with investors including professional pickleball players Anna Bright, Ben Johns, and JW Johnson. At 100,000 square feet and roughly $20 million, it's meant to be the flashiest racquet facility in the state, with a restaurant from local favorite Farmer's Table and enough climate control to make South Florida's summer humidity irrelevant to a match.
The timeline has moved more than once. Renderings unveiled in November 2024 pointed to a February 2026 opening. By the groundbreaking in June 2025, the language had softened to "early 2026." As of this spring, CityPickle's own announcement pushed the date again, this time to a Fall 2026 grand opening, timed to coincide with the debut of the Palm Beach Royals, a new Major League Pickleball team featuring Tyson McGuffin that will call Boca Paddle home. Fall doesn't start for another month, and there's still no fixed date on the calendar. If you've been waiting to try the cold plunge, you'll be waiting a little longer.
A Skatepark Is Riding the Same North Park Timeline
Boca Paddle isn't the only project tied to that stretch of Jeffrey Street. A few hundred feet away, the Beach and Park District is building a 42,000-square-foot skatepark designed to replace the aging Tim Huxhold Skate Park downtown, which is being displaced by the city's government campus redevelopment. Commissioners approved the final design in January 2026 after two rounds of public workshops, and the city has committed to funding two-thirds of the project. By the time it's finished, the new park will be more than four times the size of the facility it's replacing, with a pump track, multiple bowls, and a street course laid out more than 300 feet from the nearest homes.
None of that construction is finished yet. What is finished, and open now, is North Park's Traffic Garden, a car-free loop built on former tennis courts along Jeffrey Street where kids can practice riding bikes and reading road signs without dodging actual traffic. It's a small piece of the larger master plan, but it's the one part of North Park you can already use this week.
Where to Actually Show Up This Week
If you're deciding where to spend a free evening in Boca Raton right now, the choice isn't really a choice yet:
- Want to play pickleball tonight under a roof, reserve a court through PlayByPoint, and pay a walk-up fee: head to Patch Reef Park.
- Want tennis with an established pro shop and lit courts after sunset: Patch Reef Paddle & Racquet Club covers that too.
- Want to let a kid loose on a bike in a safe, car-free loop: North Park's Traffic Garden is already open on Jeffrey Street.
- Want the padel courts, the cold plunge, the pro pickleball team, or the new skatepark: all of that is still under construction, with Boca Paddle targeting this fall and the skatepark following behind it.
The city's own recreation page for tennis and pickleball has the current reservation windows and rules if you're planning your first visit to Patch Reef.
What This Says About the City Right Now
Boca Raton isn't choosing between a public rec center and a private luxury club. It's building both at once, a few miles apart, on two different funding models and two different timelines. The public side moved fast: groundbreaking to grand opening in about a year, at prices that keep the door open to anyone with a Palm Beach County ID. The private side is chasing something bigger, a facility built to host professional matches and investor-backed brands, and that ambition is exactly why it keeps slipping past its own announced dates.
If you live here and you've been holding off on trying pickleball until the shiny new club opens, you don't have to wait. The courts a few miles away have been open since last fall, and nobody's checking a calendar to let you in.
Want to know what else is changing in the neighborhoods around Boca Raton this year, from new construction to the way local amenities are shaping day-to-day life here? Deborah Carr keeps a close eye on both, and she's always happy to talk about what's actually happening on the ground. Let's Connect.
