A lender could take back the planned site of Camp Pickle in Centennial.
The upstart pickleball concept had planned to mesh the sport with retail and food service at 7040 S. Kenton St., just a stone’s throw from the Centennial Airport. But earlier this year, BusinessDen reported that the site was for sale and plans were scrapped.
Last week, the property’s lender, Easterlima Development LLP, initiated foreclosure proceedings.
Camp Pickle purchased the 5-acre Centennial lot for $3.3 million in May 2024 from Easterlima, which financed the deal with a $2.3 million loan at 10% interest that was to mature one year later. Camp Pickle failed to pay it off, public records show.
Lawyers and a representative for Easterlima did not return requests for comment.
Punch Bowl Social founder Robert Thompson, the frontman behind Camp Pickle, said he hasn’t been involved for a while.
“I resigned from a contracted management role at Camp Pickle over a year ago. I wasn’t an owner and I’m not part of its current operations. I can’t speak to its current status,” he said in a text to BusinessDen.
Thompson told BusinessDen in 2022 that the 70,000-square-foot Centennial Camp Pickle complex would have 14 indoor and outdoor pickleball courts and restaurant and bar seating throughout. The space was to have a “nostalgic Americana” design to look like a 1940s rustic summer camp, he said.
But no work ever began at the site. Public records show that architects, designers and engineers have filed liens on the Centennial property for a combined $58,000. And Camp Pickle owes $147,000 in unpaid taxes and $31,000 for permitting fees, according to city documents.
In the meantime, Thompson has been focused on a new concept, Valhalla SC Arena, a concept similar to Camp Pickle that combines food and sport, but with soccer as its main focus.
“It’s early and exploratory,” he said.
Thompson also was ordered to pay $790,970 in March to the Denver developer McWhinney after breaking a lease near Union Station for his Three Saints Revival restaurant. Records show he has still not paid the judgment.
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