Reading Cinemas in Rohnert Park closed in November 2023 and the building has largely sat vacant since. It’ll be turned into a pickleball and gym complex.|
SARA EDWARDS
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The building that once housed Rohnert Park’s sole movie theater will be converted into a large pickleball and health club facility sometime next year. The space has largely sat vacant since Reading Cinemas abruptly shut its doors last November.
CenterLine 33 plans to convert the 16-screen theater space into a membership-based pickleball arena with other health club and wellness amenities. The project was approved for an Administrative Use Permit in June.
A site plan and architectural review for additional outdoor courts was approved by the Rohnert Park Planning Commission Thursday night.
The partners behind the project — Richard Coombs, Bill Carson and Jack Weaver — say this development will be the largest pickleball facility in the North Bay.
Coombs is a general partner of Airport Business Center, a major commercial landlord that owns many businesses around the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport and the Windsor Golf Club. The property firm is also suing the City of Santa Rosa to prevent the sale or leasing of the city-owned Garage 5 on Third Street in downtown Santa Rosa.
Carson is the director of operations at the Windsor Golf Course and golf course administrator at the Rooster Run Golf Club in Petaluma.
Weaver is a managing partner for the law firm Welty, Weaver and Currie and previously worked on wildfire litigation in Sonoma County.
“It’s wonderfully located to serve the entire county and we’re excited to build a facility that will hopefully be an amazing pickleball experience for people of all ages,” Coombs said during a phone call Friday about the pickleball arena.
From theater seats to court nets
The building at 555 Rohnert Park Expressway has four tenant spaces on a 12.08-acre lot with 758 parking spaces. The theater space on its own totals approximately 74,000 square feet with 16 theaters and around 3,000 seats.
Other businesses in the building include Rebounderz indoor trampoline park, Cheer Obsession Athletics and Southern Wine & Spirits Wholesalers.
Plans filed with the City of Rohnert Park show that the building’s exterior would largely remain the same.
Inside, the theater space would house 17 indoor pickleball courts. Other games such as pingpong and cornhole will have space inside as well. The second floor, which housed the theater’s movie projectors, will become a viewing lounge for guests.
Though the focus is pickleball, the facility will also have a 2,000-square-foot gym and health club with saunas, locker rooms, cold-plunge baths, red-light therapy space and more.
Just outside, 138 of the theater’s parking spaces will be turned into an additional 16 outdoor pickleball courts enclosed by a 12-foot fence that’ll require a key fob to enter.
A 25-by-60-foot shaded structure with seating will be on the east side of the outdoor space for members to rest, watch matches or wait for a court to become available.
The plan also took into account noise concerns for the outdoor courts, noting the facility’s location is in a commercial district and a noise study will be part of the process.
An estimate for how much the project will cost was not available, and membership costs, Weaver said, are also still being determined.
Following the planning commission’s decision Thursday, developers can begin preparations for the conversion.
Weaver estimates it will take a few months before demolition of the space’s insides and construction can officially begin.
“We’re taking what is now empty space that was family friendly and replacing it with something health and wellness based and still family friendly,” Weaver told the planning commission. “It’s just a great environment.”
Few concerns were raised by planning commissioners and the site plan and architecture review was approved by all members minus Matt Epstein, who was absent from the meeting.
Vice chairperson Chuck Striplen raised concerns about the fate of the project “when the fad is over, when people move on from pickleball to something else.”
“It’s a pretty significant change for this community,” he said during the meeting.
Health clubs key to revitalizing retail centers
Rohnert Park’s only movie theater for 25 years, the movie house was once owned by Pacific Theaters and was known as Stadium 16 before Reading International bought it in 2008 and renamed it.
Shortly after the theater’s closure, Reading International removed the projectors, appliances in the concession area, and other equipment, leaving the space largely empty. Weaver said that would have made it difficult for another movie theater to move into the same location.
