FORMER NEIMAN MARCUS IN NATICK TO BECOME INDOOR PICKLEBALL CLUB

After floating plans for labs to fill the former Neiman Marcus building at the Natick Mall, its owner is now looking to convert the two-story space into a massive pickleball club. The developer, Bulfinch, has already succeeded with similar conversions: The former Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill is now the Life Time Center, named after the supersized fitness club that serves as the health and wellness center’s anchor, and a former Dick’s Sporting Goods at the Westgate Mall in Brockton has been leased to Urban Air Adventure Park. These projects are part of a broader trend as large vacant spaces at shopping malls are increasingly being renovated and repurposed for sports and entertainment uses. At the Natick Mall, for example, a shuttered American Girl doll store is slated to be a Puttshack indoor miniature golf course, and a “challenge room” complex known as Level99 opened in the former Sears. In Natick, Bulfinch had originally hoped to convert the 94,000-square-foot Neiman Marcus building, which is owned separately from the adjacent mall, into lab space. But residents in condos at the mall raised concerns, and, after surging in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for suburban lab properties has sagged considerably in the past year or so. Fitness operator DJ Bosse said pickleball’s relative ease of play and inexpensiveness, along with its social aspects, have caused it to catch on. But he’s also aware of the issues that have arisen because of that popularity: Outdoor pickleball games sparked complaints about the noise or conflicts with tennis players and others who also want to use the courts. Dedicated indoor spaces address those problems, he said.