top of page
< Back

Pickle at the Palms opens on an old Interbay car wash site

Ginny Gilder's family built a 20 court pickleball club in Interbay, on a lot that was once a car wash and a homeless safe parking site.

<h6>Seattle Fitness Magazine · 13 Oct 2026</h6><h2>A family&#x27;s pickleball bet</h2> <p><b>Pickle at the Palms is a family project before it is anything else.</b></p><p>Kyle Schraeder runs the 20 court club on 15th Avenue West in Interbay. His wife, Sierra Keeler, is its creative director. His mother in law, Ginny Gilder, a co-owner of the Seattle Storm, won an Olympic silver medal in rowing&#x27;s quadruple sculls.</p><p>None of it, Schraeder told Pickleball Innovators in 2025, was meant to scale. &quot;We&#x27;re not looking to build a franchise off of this. This is just our baby and our family project.&quot; The idea began over breakfast, by the family&#x27;s own account: eggs, toast, and a question about building something for the city together. Gilder had just finished developing the Storm&#x27;s BECU Storm Center for Basketball Performance.</p> <h2>The logic of owning, not leasing</h2> <p><b>Schraeder structured the deal as a buy-in, not a lease.</b></p><p>Owning the property, he told Pickleball Innovators in 2025, gives the family control over how the club runs. Before Interbay, he managed programs at Seattle Tennis Club and Tennis Center Sandpoint. Keeler, a former Division I tennis player, shifted her focus to the club&#x27;s interiors and merchandise.</p><p>Day-to-day work falls to a small staff. Gina Phillips runs operations after years building a 31-location WeWork portfolio across the Northwest and Canada. Ian McPherson directs pickleball programming; he spent two decades in IT and ran a bed and breakfast in Spain before coming back to the sport full time.</p> <h2>From car wash to Pickle at the Palms</h2> <p><b>Brown Bear Car Wash once stood at 3435 15th Avenue West, with a coffee stand called Java Jazz and a taco truck alongside it.</b></p><p>In December 2023 the site became Salmon Bay Village, a city-backed tiny house and safe RV parking program for people experiencing homelessness run by the Low Income Housing Institute. &quot;The goal of Salmon Bay Village is to enable vehicle residents to leave their deteriorating and unsafe RVs and to make a successful move into permanent housing,&quot; Sharon Lee, LIHI executive director, said in a statement.</p><p>Design review for a pickleball facility on the same lot began in 2023, planned at three stories. Construction began in 2025. The two-story Pickle at the Palms was built by Sellen Construction and designed by AXIS Architecture + Design, with Seattle developer Maria Barrientos as project developer and investor.</p> <h2>Built to stay quiet</h2> <p><b>Pickleball courts are typically loud, and Schraeder built around that problem first.</b></p><p>He put it directly to Pickleball Innovators in 2025: &quot;I have walked into so many facilities and I can&#x27;t hear myself think.&quot; The club&#x27;s building dampens court sound by more than 50 percent, by its own account.</p><p>Twenty competition-level courts run across two floors, with a cafe and a lounge called the Loft, where members can watch replays on a nine-screen digital wall. Every court includes on-court cameras and PlaySight review technology, and four Premier Courts add an extra camera at the kitchen line. Open play is capped at no more than six players per court, so wait times stay short. Tournament winners get added to the club&#x27;s &quot;Wall of Champions.&quot;</p> <h2>Big, but not the biggest</h2> <p><b>Gilder calls her club Seattle&#x27;s largest indoor pickleball facility.</b></p><p>Fox 13 reported that framing as her own description, not an independent measurement, when it covered the opening in August 2026. A bigger facility is open in South Seattle: Sideout Tsunami Pickleball Center, with 26 indoor courts across nearly 100,000 square feet. The Palms stayed smaller and chose to buy in rather than lease.</p> <h2>Open now, leagues underway</h2> <p>Pickle at the Palms sits a block off the RapidRide D Line stop at 15th and Dravus, open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mainstay Provisions, the on-site cafe, opens at 7 a.m. too but closes earlier: 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.</p><p>Members can book a court seven days out; everyone else gets a 48-hour window, and parking is free in a lot with more than 50 stalls. The club rents paddles and balls for players who show up without gear and runs on both iOS and Android apps. Private events can run from five people to as many as 500, on the site where cars were once washed.</p>
Seattle Fitness Magazine · 13 Oct 2026

A family's pickleball bet

Pickle at the Palms is a family project before it is anything else.

Kyle Schraeder runs the 20 court club on 15th Avenue West in Interbay. His wife, Sierra Keeler, is its creative director. His mother in law, Ginny Gilder, a co-owner of the Seattle Storm, won an Olympic silver medal in rowing's quadruple sculls.

None of it, Schraeder told Pickleball Innovators in 2025, was meant to scale. "We're not looking to build a franchise off of this. This is just our baby and our family project." The idea began over breakfast, by the family's own account: eggs, toast, and a question about building something for the city together. Gilder had just finished developing the Storm's BECU Storm Center for Basketball Performance.

The logic of owning, not leasing

Schraeder structured the deal as a buy-in, not a lease.

Owning the property, he told Pickleball Innovators in 2025, gives the family control over how the club runs. Before Interbay, he managed programs at Seattle Tennis Club and Tennis Center Sandpoint. Keeler, a former Division I tennis player, shifted her focus to the club's interiors and merchandise.

Day-to-day work falls to a small staff. Gina Phillips runs operations after years building a 31-location WeWork portfolio across the Northwest and Canada. Ian McPherson directs pickleball programming; he spent two decades in IT and ran a bed and breakfast in Spain before coming back to the sport full time.

From car wash to Pickle at the Palms

Brown Bear Car Wash once stood at 3435 15th Avenue West, with a coffee stand called Java Jazz and a taco truck alongside it.

In December 2023 the site became Salmon Bay Village, a city-backed tiny house and safe RV parking program for people experiencing homelessness run by the Low Income Housing Institute. "The goal of Salmon Bay Village is to enable vehicle residents to leave their deteriorating and unsafe RVs and to make a successful move into permanent housing," Sharon Lee, LIHI executive director, said in a statement.

Design review for a pickleball facility on the same lot began in 2023, planned at three stories. Construction began in 2025. The two-story Pickle at the Palms was built by Sellen Construction and designed by AXIS Architecture + Design, with Seattle developer Maria Barrientos as project developer and investor.

Built to stay quiet

Pickleball courts are typically loud, and Schraeder built around that problem first.

He put it directly to Pickleball Innovators in 2025: "I have walked into so many facilities and I can't hear myself think." The club's building dampens court sound by more than 50 percent, by its own account.

Twenty competition-level courts run across two floors, with a cafe and a lounge called the Loft, where members can watch replays on a nine-screen digital wall. Every court includes on-court cameras and PlaySight review technology, and four Premier Courts add an extra camera at the kitchen line. Open play is capped at no more than six players per court, so wait times stay short. Tournament winners get added to the club's "Wall of Champions."

Big, but not the biggest

Gilder calls her club Seattle's largest indoor pickleball facility.

Fox 13 reported that framing as her own description, not an independent measurement, when it covered the opening in August 2026. A bigger facility is open in South Seattle: Sideout Tsunami Pickleball Center, with 26 indoor courts across nearly 100,000 square feet. The Palms stayed smaller and chose to buy in rather than lease.

Open now, leagues underway

Pickle at the Palms sits a block off the RapidRide D Line stop at 15th and Dravus, open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mainstay Provisions, the on-site cafe, opens at 7 a.m. too but closes earlier: 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Members can book a court seven days out; everyone else gets a 48-hour window, and parking is free in a lot with more than 50 stalls. The club rents paddles and balls for players who show up without gear and runs on both iOS and Android apps. Private events can run from five people to as many as 500, on the site where cars were once washed.

bottom of page