Winds Howling

A little after 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sterling Heights cut the ribbon on its latest project: the Sterling Heights Athletic Hub. I went to see it happen with a friend who lives nearby.

The name “Athletic Hub” is sort of a euphemism obscuring the fact that it’s really just indoor pickleball courts with ping-pong tables on the side. The city built it inside the abandoned shell of a former drug store and later Spirit Halloween, using $10 million in taxes from a big millage it passed in 2024. It’s sandwiched between another large empty building, formerly Target, and a brand-new apartment complex that’s still wrapping up construction.

“This area of the city is getting revitalized one step at a time,” Parks and Rec Director Kyle Langlois said during his speech at the ribbon cutting. “It’s amazing to look out and see what has happened in this area from really just 10 months ago. Google Maps hasn’t even caught up to what’s happened in this area.”

There was a surprising little crowd gathered to see the Athletic Hub open its doors, a concentration of sweating humanity in one corner of a large, desolate parking lot.

We got in line with about 65 other people, and more filled in behind us. The line dissolved as soon as the event actually started and they called the crowd to gather up close to hear the speeches. After about 11 minutes of that, they urged everyone to line up behind the ribbon for a big group photo, calling it “a very monumental moment for our community.”

Once that was over with, everybody turned around and mushed into each other in an effort to be first through the doors, until somebody got on the microphone and directed the formation of a line.

The interior immediately gave me a pretty good feeling — spacious, inviting, shiny and clean. I’ve only played pickleball once, and didn’t play here today, so I don’t know how to evaluate it on that front. (Outside, I overheard a player say the courts were “hard,” but couldn’t tell whether that was good or bad.) This was the only day I would ever get in for free. As a non-Sterling Heights resident, my standard admission fee will be $5; for city residents, play is free.

If Alex Dunne, project manager at Cunningham-Limp, the firm that built all this, is to be believed, it’s a standout pickleball palace.

“We’ve done a number of these pickleball facilities across the state,” he said at the ribbon cutting. “What we have behind us here is truly cutting edge. Going forward, if we continue to do these pickleball facilities, we’re going to take this as a model of what an ideal pickleball facility should be.”

Cunningham-Limp must have pretty innovative minds for pickleball, because they also describe the Northville Pickleball Club they opened last year as “Michigan’s largest and most advanced indoor pickleball facility, setting a new standard for the sport in the region.”

There were lots of grand-opening goodies inside the Athletic Hub, starting with pickleball cookies.

The headliner was the açaí bowl from Playa Bowls.

The local McDonald’s sent a delegation to give out cookies, World Cup cups (I got Beckham), Squishmallow Happy Meal toys and job applications.

Attendees also got memorabilia for the Athletic Hub itself: a towel, pickleball-shaped lip balm and stickers.

Local artist Wendy Popko is still in the process of painting a mural, an ode to all things Sterling Heights, on the back side of the building. Her contract with the city set a deadline of July 10, the day before the grand opening, but there’s still a lot more painting to be done.

“I have a ways to go,” she told the ribbon cutting crowd. “I apologize for that. I will be working out there today. It’s a beautiful day. I don’t want to waste it.”