Kennewick entrepreneur Dustin DeCoria knows a good business idea when he sees it.

DeCoria has owned wireless internet providers and has been a partner in the Amon Hills Business Center.

DeCoria, his brother Dallas and their spouses recently bought the Log Cabin Resort near Twin Lakes and Inchelium, a resort that includes 22 cabins, a motel, an RV site and tents.

Now, DeCoria and his wife, Andrea, are turning their attention to designing and launching a unique indoor pickleball facility in the Tri-Cities powered by artificial intelligence.

The addition of AI could be a draw, DeCoria said.

“We’re teaching AI how the game is played,” he said. “Cameras are watching every court. And if players allow it, AI will call whether the balls are in or out on the courts.”

AI also will track the ball speed, where you hit it, when there are forced errors and non-forced errors.

It can also help improve players’ games, DeCoria said.

“If I play on a Monday, I can watch film of my last match, and I can see what I did right and wrong,” he said.

Designed for fun

The DeCorias recently bought 2.8 acres from the Tri-Cities Chaplaincy at 1336 Spaulding Ave. in Richland’s Wye area for $459,000 where they plan to open The Pickleball Pen.

“We came across the property in the Spaulding Business Park,” said DeCoria. “There is easy on and off access with the freeway. To me, it’s the perfect location.”

DeCoria hopes to break ground within the next six months.

“Honestly, I hope we can open in March of next year,” he said.

DeCoria said the budget for the project is $6 million.

The entire building should encompass about 50,000 square feet. DiCoria is expecting to have 15 full-time employees.

“We are also planning a cardio center that will be around 2,000 square feet (as part of that 50,000 square feet),” DeCoria said. 

Other amenities planned are a children’s drop-off center called the Kids Fun Pen, a kitchen with a dining area and an upstairs mezzanine so people can watch games on different courts.

The Pickleball Pen will offer four different levels of memberships, including a family membership, a couple of different individual memberships and an open play membership for players who want to play but not in tournaments.

APC Construction will be the builder. DKEI Architectural Services is the architect.

A Kennewick couple recently bought 2.8 acres from the Tri-Cities Chaplaincy at 1336 Spaulding Ave. in Richland’s Wye area to open The Pickleball Pen in 2026.

| Map by Nathan Finke

Popularity of pickleball

Pickleball – the official sport of Washington state – continues to explode.

According to USA Pickleball, the fame was created in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, when three fathers — Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum — developed a summer activity for their bored kids.

Think of it as a scaled down version of tennis. The court is smaller, 20-by-44 feet, and singles and doubles play can take place. Players use paddles and hit a plastic ball back and forth. 

In the state of Washington, there were 1,011 pickleball courts in 2023, with 571 of them outdoor courts.

According to the 2024 Sports and Fitness Industry Association’s Topline Participation report, an estimated 13.6 million players participated in the sport in 2023. That’s a 52% jump over the prior 12 months.

The next biggest jump was golf at 19%.

In the Tri-Cities alone, there are 48 pickleball courts getting a lot of usage: 15 at Kennewick’s Lawrence Scott Park, Richland’s Columbia Basin Racquet Club has 12 indoor courts and six outdoor courts, Kennewick’s Pacific Clinic has six indoor courts, Richland’s Claybell Park has six outdoor courts and the city of Pasco has three indoor courts. Hermiston recently opened a 10-court complex with LED lighting.

The Flying Pickle – based out of the Boise area – is building an indoor pickleball warehouse in Kennewick that will have between 16 to 20 courts, and it should open sometime in 2026.

DeCoria’s plan is to add more courts to the region’s offerings with the Pickleball Pen.

“There will be an absolute minimum of 16 courts, and possibly 18,” he said.

Getting hooked

DeCoria said he has been an avid pickleball player since the early 2000s, and he has always played outdoors, usually three to five times a week.

Recently, he went to a tournament in Texas at an indoor facility.

“I thought, ‘We should build one of these. An indoor pickleball facility would be great,’” he said. “That’s how it started.”

Indoor play is the draw.

“In the Tri-Cities, there is a lot of wind, and you have the cold season,” DeCoria said. “Our facility is planned for 24/7 access. You get off of work at midnight and you want to play, you’ll have access to get in and play then.”

DeCoria said at Lawrence Scott Park, people play until the park closes.

He firmly believes that if more people learn the game, they will get hooked, too.

“I love that you can get exercise and be competitive. It’s an easy way to get exercise without overexerting yourself,” he said. “And the little things that you need to improve on, you can get better.”

The allure of pickleball, according to DeCoria, is that a grandparent at the age of 70 can play with his grandkids.

“It’s just a really fun game,” he said. “You can take a person who hasn’t played before, work with them for an hour and a half on instruction, and they should be able to play.”

DeCoria sees it as a new social setting for people.

“It’s kind of becoming the new chic country club,” DeCoria said. “I see people use pickleball as a date night. They go play pickleball or watch others play. It’s a social hangout.”

Go to: pickleballpen.com.