Padel&
Part I: Coming to Life on the Brooklyn Waterfront.
WORDS
Padel Magazine
PHOTOGRAPHY
Javier Romero
An empty warehouse is like a blank canvas. You know the feeling if you’ve ever been in one. Standing there, the possibilities seem endless and your mind begins to race. They’re spaces full of contradictions, too: cavernous yet cozy, calming while anxiety-inducing, liberating but oppressive. If this warehouse on Brooklyn’s waterfront is the blank canvas, 23-year-old Olof Sandros-Apler is the artist. He is the general manager of Padel&, a multi-court facility opening in Greenpoint, a quaint neighborhood on the northern tip of Brooklyn.
“I came to New York to start a business. I had no clue what it was going to be, I just kind of showed up,” Olof tells Padel Magazine. After studying in his native Stockholm, he came to the U.S. to try something new, and quickly discovered something the country was sorely lacking: padel courts. “Having seen how successful the sport was in Portugal and Sweden, I thought, this is such a huge gap in the market.”
From that moment in 2021, his primary focus was opening a padel business. Fundraising was an immediate issue. Olof found himself stuck between European investors who knew the sport but couldn't justify the astronomical costs of opening a club in NYC and American investors who understood the costs, but had never heard of the sport before. “The money was an issue on one side, and the knowledge of the sport was an issue on the other,” he recalls.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, he went back to school in Sweden and waited for market conditions to change. Shortly after graduation, an old contact reached out and said they wanted to invest in the U.S., and asked if Olof would be interested in leading the project. It seemed his American dream wasn’t so dead after all.
The call came from brothers Markus and Rikard Hellqvist, founders of Padel United, a Swedish investment firm that owns and operates padel clubs. The company has since undergone a merger and changed its name. Like many others in the industry, they had seen the explosive growth of padel in the U.S. and wanted to join the action: they were going headfirst into the American market. Just like that, Olof was on a plane back to NYC.
The result of their phone call and subsequent investment is Padel&. After looking at more than 150 locations across the city, they finally settled on 73 West St., a 20,000-square-foot facility that was previously a movie sound stage. Located on the Brooklyn waterfront, in one of the fastest-growing and rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in the city, the location is ideal. Recent rezoning has brought nearly 10,000 new residents and hundreds of thousands of square feet of office and retail space to the area. “We’re extremely happy. It’s hard to find a place with high ceilings, the proper column spacing and air conditioning already installed. This place checked most of our boxes.”
Olof explains, “We’re approaching the market from a European perspective.” Padel in the U.S. is becoming a sport associated with luxury, but, “we want to be more inclusive and relatable.” One of the biggest barriers to attracting new customers, Olof says, is the exclusive, unwelcoming brand padel has adopted in the U.S. “We want to take the complete opposite approach,” he says, pointing to everything from “silly” social media posts to making sure a friendly face greets customers when they walk in. “We want to create a non-judgmental zone.”
The result of their phone call and subsequent investment is Padel&. After looking at more than 150 locations across the city, they finally settled on 73 West St., a 20,000-square-foot facility that was previously a movie sound stage. Located on the Brooklyn waterfront, in one of the fastest-growing and rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in the city, the location is ideal. Recent rezoning has brought nearly 10,000 new residents and hundreds of thousands of square feet of office and retail space to the area. “We’re extremely happy. It’s hard to find a place with high ceilings, the proper column spacing and air conditioning already installed. This place checked most of our boxes.”
Olof explains, “We’re approaching the market from a European perspective.” Padel in the U.S. is becoming a sport associated with luxury, but, “we want to be more inclusive and relatable.” One of the biggest barriers to attracting new customers, Olof says, is the exclusive, unwelcoming brand padel has adopted in the U.S. “We want to take the complete opposite approach,” he says, pointing to everything from “silly” social media posts to making sure a friendly face greets customers when they walk in. “We want to create a non-judgmental zone.”
Despite the stripped-down facility and welcoming brand, the price to play at Padel& is still premium compared to Europe and even the rest of the country. “I think, in the existing market for non-members, we’ve reached a floor for pricing.” But he admits, “If more padel clubs open, and if they can find cheaper rent and lower their prices significantly, then we would have to react to that and differentiate in some way.”
It seems they’re already preparing to differentiate themselves. “We want to be as connected to the community as possible,” Olof says. That connection will come through programming like clinics, hosting events with neighborhood partners like run clubs and investing in great coaches. “That’s been the biggest challenge when it comes to hiring,” he explains. “For beginners and intermediate players, it’s easier to find a tennis coach who’s transitioned [to padel]. But when it comes to advanced players, we’ll likely need to bring someone in from abroad.” Olof is acutely aware of the importance of good coaching. He insists that strong coaches help build community and keep customers coming back.
Does he see himself as a community manager? “Definitely,” he says without hesitation. “Before, you would go out and meet new people at a bar or something. I think as a society we’ve lost that, and now people have to find other spaces to build community. I feel like it’s a responsibility a lot of businesses have to create that type of environment. For example, run clubs have become dating hotspots.” And padel clubs? “Yes,” he says. “Padel clubs too.”✸
In Part II of Padel&’s journey to life we’ll cover the construction of the facility itself, from the cement floors to the courts and beyond. Read Part II and Part III.
ABOUT THE CLUB
Padel&
It started with two brothers and a big idea: that padel could be more than just a sport. Rikard and Markus Hellqvist fell in love with the game early and saw its potential to connect people far beyond the lines of the court. The duo opened their first club in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2018. That first club grew into a padel chain with 80 clubs across seven countries. Now, Markus and Rikard Hellqvist have launched a new brand, Padel&, entirely focused on padel in New York.
