The long-quiet former Chuck E. Cheese on Southeast Powell Boulevard is trading animatronic mice for dink shots. Project manager Loan Nguyen is turning the vacant building into Rose City Pickleball, a multi-court indoor club he hopes to open to players this summer.
Crews are already working inside the old restaurant at 9120 S.E. Powell Boulevard, which first opened as a Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theatre in 1982. The family entertainment spot shut down in October 2020 and has been mostly empty ever since, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Nguyen has signed a 10-year lease and plans to convert the roughly 12,000-square-foot space into a five-court facility with a pro shop, beer and wine, and a small kitchen serving acai bowls and banh mi. He told The Oregonian/OregonLive the design will lean into local colors, with deep green courts and an orange kitchen, and that the building’s recognizable façade will stick around. Nguyen is aiming for a soft opening by mid-July 2026.
Pickleball replacing vacant retail across Portland
The Powell project is part of a broader wave of pickleball operators moving into big, empty retail shells to meet demand for indoor play. As reported by the Portland Business Journal, Jumbo's Pickleball has already carved multi-court facilities out of space at Lloyd Center, a kind of second act for struggling commercial properties that developers are leaning into across the city.
From meetup to storefront
Rose City Pickleball is not starting from scratch. The group already runs regular open-play sessions around Portland and maintains both a website and a Meetup community, hinting at a ready-made base of players for the new clubhouse. Its online calendar and event posts show an active scene that the organizers can tap as they hire staff and build out programming at the Powell site; see Rose City Pickleball and the group’s Meetup.
For neighbors, that means a stretch of construction in the coming months and, eventually, a fresh recreation option where a long-empty storefront has been gathering dust. Nguyen has not released full membership or pricing details yet, but the project would add another indoor pickleball hub to southeast Portland at a time when the sport’s local momentum shows no signs of slowing.
