OWA Pickleball Complex

Overview

The Okanagan Wealth Advisors (OWA) Pickleball Complex is situated in beautiful Vernon British Columbia, Canada and is the largest covered dedicated Pickleball complex in Canada (2024).  It is home for the Vernon Pickleball Association (VPA). The courts are used for both dedicated member play and select hours for non-member play.

In total this is a $3.4 million structure (750k surface, 1.4 million enclosure, 1.25 million HH), that the VPA will operate at least until 2042 for the benefit of our members as well as the general public. Besides the $2.3 million of capital our club has provided there are thousands of member volunteer hours associated with the 3 phases of construction that has easily saved over a million in costs. The VPA will also pay all operating costs for these next 20 years (currently $300k/year) which adds up to a further $6 million which again does not include all the volunteer hours associated with the various committees and functional groups.

The City of Vernon and its residents have a world class, well used, facility that promotes fitness and mental health. Thanks in a large part to the generosity of the VPA and its members, the City has a legacy amenity that greatly enhances the positive lifestyle optic to outsiders of Vernon and it has been delivered at no cost to the Vernon taxpayer.

Complex Timeline

2023 Herrmann House Addition

VPA Phase III (The Herrmann House Addition) is to complete our world class facility with a Reception, Administration, Washroom and Social space. A 2,000sq ft building located to the right of the front garage door was designed at a preliminary cost of $1.25 million and was completed in July 2024

2020 Raising the Roof

May 2020, a Town Hall meeting was conducted to discuss the start of Phase II, “Raising the Roof”. 
$1.4M was required to cover the Courts with a Steel Truss & Fabric covering.

July 2020, VPA members vote in favour of the project and by September the $1.2M which was raised from our generous and supportive membership. Additionally, the City of Vernon contributed the $200k DCCs (Development Cost charges) fee that was assessed against our construction project.

November 2020, the first Trusses arrive and construction begins.

2018 Court Grand Opening

August 25th 2018, the Grand Opening of the Okanagan Wealth Advisors Pickleball Complex at Marshall Fields at a cost of $750,000.

Interesting court construction facts

The Blue Prints contained more than 50 pages
15,000 feet of wire had to be replaced for the irrigation move
120 holes were drill into the pavement with over a bag of cement in each hole to support the exterior fencing
24 holes excavated and each one filled with a cubic meter of concrete for net posts
750,000 lb of concrete blocks were used for the foundation

2018 Court Construction

Spring 2018, VPA embarks on a significant fundraising initiative to pay for the dedicated courts and over $111,000 was raised by members. Also received were in-kind donations of services and materials, as well as on-going sponsorship by two local businesses.

Court Construction broke ground in May 2018

July 2018, A Special General Meeting held by VPA to vote on borrowing additional funds. The City of Vernon offered to the VPA an interest free loan for the $145k required to complete the construction of the courts in the summer of 2018. The vote passed unanimously.

 

2017 Proposal

Proposal made from VPA to RDNO that the VPA would pay for half of the cost to build the 12 dedicated outdoor courts if the RDNO would pay half and lease us the land.

2013-2016

2015
Vernon Pickleball Association (VPA) continues advocating for courts to be built sooner due to the significant growth of the sport of Pickleball.

2013
Lobbying for outdoor Pickleball courts within Vernon begins. At the time was considered a fad and placed on a long term plan to be considered in 2019