Pickleball is a fast-growing sport, and Baltimore will get its first indoor courts as Serve on Spring Pickleball opens Saturday.

Located at 409 S. Spring St. in Fells Point, the facility includes two full-size courts and dedicated spaces for ping-pong, billiards, foosball, darts — and a bar. Co-owners Jimmy and Heather Edgerton started construction on the warehouse-size building in 2024 and soft-launched the sports business in September 2025.

The Edgertons secured a liquor license, a feat in Fells Point, where residents have rebuffed liquor permits for nearby businesses such as Sacré Sucré and The Undefeated, a restaurant concept from Atlas Restaurant Group.

Jimmy Edgerton, 41 and a Patterson Park resident, said he had often biked by the vacant warehouse on Spring Street. It was once home to A & A Marble Crafters, a stone fabrication business formerly owned by Bartolomeo “Bart” Amodeo. The building hadn’t been in use for years until the Edgertons purchased it in 2022.

“My wife and I had renovated a couple of condemned properties on our block, and I wanted to make a bigger impact,” said Jimmy Edgerton, a civil engineer and personal trainer. “I was talking with some friends about a commercial deal and trying to invest in the city where we’re raising our families.”

They worked with Second Chance, an architectural salvage store in South Baltimore, to clear out thousands of pounds of marble and started renovating the building for a commercial tenant. When that tenant fell through, the Edgertons wanted to put something in its place.

“We live near Patterson Park, so we could literally see how it was 95% tennis. Now it’s like 95% pickleball,” Jimmy Edgerton said. “As we saw that change occur, especially towards the end of the pandemic, it’s like, ‘Oh, the market is telling us what it wants to be.’”

SOS Pickleball arrives as the sport rises in popularity among Marylanders.

Montgomery County Public Schools added pickleball to 25 high schools in 2024 after finding success through its pilot program. Dill Dinkers, an indoor pickleball franchise founded by Will and Denise Richards of Howard County, has rapidly expanded in the Baltimore region, with locations in Columbia, White Marsh, Cockeysville and Finksburg.

The Edgertons are partnering with Bank Street Deli, a sandwich shop by day and speakeasy bar by night on the corner of Spring and Bank streets, to sell food to pickleballers. Once the weather warms, they plan to use the outdoor space attached to the building for additional courts and a beer garden concept that could include food trucks.

Players can book courts in advance, take lessons, host events and use technology that lets groups record and save instant replays of their aces and rallies.

Heather Edgerton, 45, left her longtime job as marketing director at Creative Alliance to help her husband bring the concept to life. She said she wanted to create a space where players could enjoy the courts, hang out and meet people.

Social sports have become popular nationwide, especially in Baltimore, home to Volo Sports, the largest social sports club in the nation. The Edgertons said they wanted to do something for a slightly older demographic.

“This, I think, is that next era where you’re a little more of a grown-up, you’re a little more established, but you still want to get out, meet people and not hang out in a bar nonstop but get some activity,” Heather Edgerton said.

While they’re just starting, they’ve seen success with packed soft openings and even converted the indoor courts to host a comedy show.

“I hope we continue to listen to our community and really build and provide what they ask for,” Jimmy Edgerton said. “I think, if we do that, we’ll be successful.”