The success of the Caribbean Pickleball Championship last week was helped by the island’s only inside courts coming to the rescue.

Originally scheduled to be played at the WER Joell Tennis Stadium, heavy rain on Thursday led organisers to divert play to Press Court, the new pickleball venue at the old Royal Gazette Building in Par-la-Ville Road in Hamilton.

With four freshly-laid courts occupying the space, matches took place until the early hours of the morning as players from five countries and across all ages competed for their own slice of history.

For Jonathan Howes, chief executive officer of Bermuda Press Holdings Limited, watching competitive sport in the building was the culmination of a whirlwind three months

“We didn't get moved out of the Gazette building until the end of November, so we had 14 weeks to renovate the building in time for the championships,” Howes said.

“The process included everything from planning permission, rezoning the building, asbestos removal and having to be fully ADA compliant, so there was a lot of heavy lifting to get it done.

“There is new air handling, all new electrical, all new plumbing and acoustical sprays on the ceiling. We also had the logistics of the courts and the shipping into Bermuda, so the last 14 weeks was a real team effort from all the vendors involved.

“All of us who were there that Thursday morning when the pickleball players showed up were sort of shell-shocked from being so tired, but the feedback was phenomenal and they loved the playing surface.”

Despite the success of the event, the chance for the public to play at the venue will only come towards the end of April, with phase two of the developments under way.

“We were really fortunate that the planning department were able to give us temporary occupancy to allow the tournament to happen, so kudos to them for their support,” Howes said.

“They asked us to make sure that we’re closed now until we fully complete. This week, the vendors are coming back in to finish up the bathroom and right now we’re targeting end of April.

“We want to kick off the grand opening with a two-day charity pickleball tournament in the first indoor facility in Bermuda and have a ribbon-cutting ceremony as part of that function.

“It will be a high-tech facility when we’re finished with cameras to record the play and TVs on the walls to do scoring, which will finish the pickleball build.

“Then we’ll shift as we move into the social side of the build as we will have a patio outside and there is the potential to do a viewing deck up above the main entrance.”

With The Royal Gazette staff moving into Crown House, next door to their original building, the pickleball venture is important to BPHL from a business perspective

“Any strategic decision to make the kind of investment we’ve made is important,” Howes said.

“The success of this is important. We had a very large asset that wasn’t really conducive to office space, was 50 years old and needed renovation, so what we did with the renovation was the bigger question.

“Most of the work we did was not only related to Pickleball as it needed new warehousing, new bathrooms and there were substantive upgrades to the building and it’s not just about pickleball.

“Let’s just say, for argument, s sake, we wanted to host an event in there that wasn't pickleball. We can cover the Pickleball flooring, move the nets and have it as an event venue as well.

“So the success of the facility and the future of the facility will not only be driven by pickleball, but pickleball will be the primary focus of this space.

“We are looking forward to being fully open and encouraging the growth of what is a multigenerational sport and seems to have tremendous momentum on the island.

“When I watched the participants and people who are viewing it, it was all walks of life in Bermuda. It’s multigenerational, multicultural and there seem to be no real divides. That’s really encouraging for me because sometimes we see Bermuda as quite divided.”