£4m Nottingham padel centre set for green light
Plans to build the ‘country’s best’ padel centre on the outskirts of Nottingham city centre look set to go ahead, after the proposals got a thumbs up from city council planning officers.
If approved next week, the purpose-built facility on Nottingham Riverside Business Park aims to rival top clubs around the world, according to an application submitted by East Midlands developer, ALB Group, in January this year.
‘Swing’ will include eight indoor and three outdoor covered padel courts, a show court with arena-style seating, plus wellness and leisure facilities including a sauna, physiotherapy, sports massage rooms, and a reformer pilates studio.
The proposals are earmarked for a 7.5-acre plot that once formed part of the car park to adjacent Riverleen House – the former Experian head office building, which is currently being converted into residential apartments by the same developer.
A separate office building is also part of tweaked proposals, put forward as smaller trade units in the original scheme, with around 13,000 sq ft of space set to be built in a two-storey development between the padel centre and Riverleen House.
A purpose-built padel centre could be built on the car park of Riverleen House in Nottingham. Credit: Google
The application will head to the city council’s planning committee for a final decision on 22 July, having met with the approval of the authority’s planning department.
In a statement earlier this year, Arran Bailey, managing director at ALB Group, said he had “crazy plans” for the project, which he said was bourne from his personal passion for the emerging sport.
“I’ve been playing for two years now, and it’s changed my life. After visiting courts in New York, Miami and Dubai, I wanted to bring the best bits of all of them back home to Nottingham,” he said.
“This project is absolutely huge in terms of both scale and ambition. To create something like this in my hometown is simply amazing. This is a building that’s been designed purely for Padel, so there are no compromises with it. We aren’t trying to make padel courts fit into a building, we are building a padel club from the ground up.”
Leonard Design are architects for the scheme, while planning consultancy has been provided by Aspbury Planning.
Plans and documents relating to the application can be found on Nottingham City Council’s planning portal, using reference: 26/00130/PFUL3
