The hulking, empty Toys 'R' Us at 2875 Flatbush Avenue in Marine Park has sat untouched for years, a relic of a bankrupt retail giant. Now former New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury wants to fill it with something entirely different: a sports complex built around Wellball, the shooting-focused basketball spinoff he has helped turn into a national phenomenon, alongside pickleball and flag football.
Marbury is working with Wellball to convert the abandoned storefront into a permanent facility, according to Time Out, which reports the site is expected to become Wellball's Brooklyn flagship. The building has been empty since Toys 'R' Us shuttered its U.S. stores in 2018, and the real estate itself has a longer paper trail: the retailer sold the property that October for $14.2 million to MMC Brooklyn, LLC, according to Marketproof. No opening date has been announced for the new venue.
Marbury, known to fans as Starbury, is a two-time NBA All-Star and former New York Knicks point guard.
From Beijing Statue to Brooklyn Storefront
Marbury's basketball career now folds into a distinctly local project: turning a dead big-box store a few miles from the courts where he learned the game into a hub for a sport he says could change how people compete.
“Everybody wants to shoot. Wellball, I believe will be the next… the next wave of how people are able to compete and still do something that they love to do,” Marbury said, per Time Out's reporting.
Marbury has served as a captain in Wellball's VIP League, the private circuit that launched in October 2025 and has held events at The Waterline Club in Manhattan, drawing figures like Lance Stephenson and DJ Clue. Wellball also made its collegiate debut at Fordham University's Rose Hill Gym in the Bronx, hosting a 16-team tournament with a $10,000 top prize.
What Exactly Is Wellball
Wellball is a shooting-focused basketball spinoff.
Wellball also has dedicated equipment. Trainer Omar Wellington is associated with the sport.
Why Brooklyn, Why Now
The Marine Park site the group is eyeing is a former retail property. It sits along a Belt Parkway-adjacent corridor that has long served as a shopping hub for southern Brooklyn.
The timing lines up with broader interest in paddle sports. That interest leaves an opening for indoor private complexes like the one planned for Marine Park. An NYC.gov document dated Oct 16, 2024, says the Parks and Recreation Department would identify available space to construct pickleball courts in response to increasing community demand. According to Brooklyn Community Board 1's fiscal-year 2027 district-needs statement dated Dec 23, 2025, Parks and Recreation will identify available space to construct pickleball courts to meet increasing community demand.
Wellball's own trajectory includes celebrity shootouts at Manhattan's Waterline Club, a college tournament at Fordham, and a bid to anchor a permanent home in the borough where Marbury first picked up a basketball. The sport's momentum is part of the context for this Brooklyn flagship plan.
Open questions remain around the Marine Park project, including the exact opening timeline, what zoning approvals for indoor assembly use will be required, and how the building's footprint will be divided among Wellball courts, pickleball and paddle-sports lanes, and flag football facilities.
