The top deck of a downtown Austin parking garage is about to trade in its 118 parking spaces for padel courts, a bar and a pro shop. The Austin City Council voted on August 27 to approve a lease with San Antonio-based Slice Padel Co. for 42,654 square feet atop the five-story garage at 601 East 5th Street, clearing the way for a private recreational club to open on city-owned property next to the shuttered Austin Convention Center.
The council action, formally Agenda Item 26-2161, authorizes a three-year lease with two optional one-year extensions, according to the City of Austin. As reported by Community Impact, the rooftop deck itself spans roughly 42,000 square feet and currently holds about 118 parking spaces that will be converted into six padel courts, a cafe and bar, and a clubhouse with a pro shop.
Slice Padel Co. first approached the city about taking over the garage space in the summer of 2025, per the outlet's reporting. The company is responsible for all permitting and construction costs tied to the buildout, and it must remove its additions once the lease ends. The garage will keep its lower levels open for parking throughout construction and operation of the rooftop club.
Rent Is Modest, But the City Says the Deal Pencils Out
Under the terms of the lease, Slice Padel will pay $3,000 in monthly rent during its first year, rising to $3,090 in an optional second year and $3,183 in an optional third year, the same Community Impact report notes. City fiscal impact documents prepared this month project the arrangement will generate $3,000 for the Austin Convention Center Department in fiscal year 2025–2026 and $33,000 the following fiscal year, with the city anticipating more than $111,000 in total revenue over the full lease term.
The city's pricing analysis compared the padel club's projected rent and operations against typical rooftop parking revenue, though the outlet reported that the city labeled that pricing analysis confidential because of an ongoing competitive bidding process. Austin also did not publicly seek other vendors to take over the rooftop space before finalizing terms with Slice Padel, according to the same reporting. City agenda materials described the deal as providing a community benefit and a new revenue stream from otherwise idle property, adding that the club will offer a publicly accessible recreational amenity without any city capital investment. An Austin Financial Services spokesperson said Slice Padel will absorb all rooftop operating costs.
What the Club Will Look and Sound Like
Slice Padel Co. plans to invest $500,000 into the buildout and will fund all improvements at its own expense, per the outlet. The company is allowed to sell alcohol under the lease terms, provided it secures the relevant licensing and permitting, and it has agreed to follow local noise ordinances and close by 10 p.m. The garage may also pick up new signage on the rooftop deck or elsewhere on the structure to mark the club's presence.
Slice Padel's existing flagship location, at 920 North Loop 1604 West near San Antonio's Sonterra Golf Course, gives a sense of what the company might bring downtown: six rotating food trucks, a live music stage, fire pits and a full-service bar, according to Slice Padel. The company is also opening its first San Antonio location later this year and plans to start securing Austin permits as soon as possible now that council has signed off.
A Small Fix for a Much Bigger Downtown Problem
The garage at 601 East 5th Street sits just north of the convention center's main exhibition hall and has stayed open through both the demolition of the old building and construction of its replacement, according to city agenda materials, which state that full parking operations will resume once redevelopment wraps. That redevelopment, known as UnconventionalATX, is a $1.6 billion effort to expand the center's exhibition space from 365,000 to 620,000 square feet, with the main hall closed through 2028 and a reopening targeted for early 2029, per the Austin Convention Center.
That closure has already rippled through the neighborhood. Hoodline reported that the demolition cut into downtown foot traffic, a factor local business owners cited when the 16-year-old Turf N' Surf Po'Boy shuttered in July. Against that backdrop, city officials have framed the garage lease as a way to squeeze new activity and revenue out of city property while the exhibition hall sits dark. The lease also arrives against continued legal wrangling over the broader project: Hoodline reported in January that an Austin appeals court was reviewing a petition seeking to halt the $1.6 billion redevelopment amid community debate over municipal venue funding, a dispute that remains part of the project's backdrop.
Austin Joins a Padel Boom Already Reshaping the City
The Slice Padel deal lands as the sport expands rapidly across the region. North Austin's Austin Padel Center celebrated its grand opening on August 7, unveiling a 22,000-square-foot facility with nine courts, a cold plunge, a sauna and a full bar at the former Wonderspaces site, as Community Impact also reported. That opening followed closely on a similar Hoodline story detailing the North Austin club's amenities.
The growth extends well beyond Austin. Industry research from the Racquet Sports Institute, published in April, found the U.S. padel market had grown to 688 courts across 180 facilities by mid-2025, with Texas ranking second nationally behind Florida in total courts. Globally, the Playtomic 2026 Global Padel Report identified the United States as a top long-term growth market for the sport, with nearly 5,000 new clubs and 8,000 courts added worldwide in 2025 alone, according to Athletech News.
Whether a six-court rooftop club can meaningfully offset the foot-traffic losses tied to a multi-year convention center closure remains an open question. For now, the deal gives the city a modest but guaranteed revenue stream and gives Slice Padel a downtown foothold as it expands beyond its San Antonio roots.
