PKL Park held its grand opening Nov. 22
The 3.7 acre facility is a $2.2 million investment adjacent to Unity Park in downtown Greenville. It was spearheaded by Nick Gilley, president of Base 360, and John Sharkey, owner of Greenville Sports League.
The pickleball park includes the former Mark V Recording Studio building, as well as eateries Toastified and Coop’s Crazy Chicken in the adjacent structure, founded by father-daughter duo, David and Tessa Wolfgram.
The park also incudes a 20-foot TV wall, stage, roughly 10,000 square feet of green space and eight pickleball courts.
Photo by Tiare Solis
On opening day, the park’s co-founders were joined by Greenville Councilmember Lillian Brock Flemming, who grew up playing around the studio when she was ‘knee high to a bug.’
“There’s something for everybody to be here,” Flemming said. “It’s just the community coming together. ‘Unity’ is the last five letters of the ‘community,’ which means it is for families to enjoy themselves.”
Sharkey and Gilley echoed the sentiment.
“We’re hoping to unify everything people like under one roof,” Sharkey said.
The park utilized the historic Mark V Recording Studio building, famous for recording artists like Moses Dillard and Hank Garland, as its primary eatery, The Kitchen. The now-defunct studio has been a mainstay in the Southernside neighborhood since it was built in 1961.
The Kitchen features memorabilia from the recording studio’s heyday with murals depicting significant moments in the neighborhood’s history. Along the walls are portraits of artists who once recorded there and an aerial depiction of Unity Park in 1956. Original ledger sheets and a Del Vecchio guitar that belonged to one of the studio’s founders are also on display.
PKL Park went before the city’s Design Review Board in October of 2023. Construction officially began in April 2024.
The business first announced an opening date of Oct. 20, but was delayed in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, pushing the date back to Nov. 22
PKL Park is located at 78 Mayberry St.
Learn more: The Greenville Music Preservation produced a podcast about the history of the Mark V recording studio, with QR codes present in the park.
