This popular pickleball court just got hit with a $500,000 tax bill
It could be the end of the Fairgrounds racket club near Yonge and St. Clair
A popular pickleball court that brought life to an empty lot near Yonge and St. Clair may have to close after being hit with a massive tax bill from the city.
The courts are run by Fairgrounds Racket Club, and sit on a lot at the northeast corner of Yonge Street and Rosehill Avenue that is planned for a 50-storey mixed-use development. That project, however, has been moving through the city’s approval process for nearly six years and is still in the planning stage.
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That meant that when racket club Fairgrounds opened a pop-up court on the site, it filled what would otherwise be a dusty, vacant lot. It has proved popular, with locals happily batting around balls in the warmer months.
Fairgrounds typically charges around $35 per session for their Toronto courts, and the tax authorities took notice. Toronto’s Municipal Property Assessment Corporation recently changed the Rosehill court’s tax designation from residential to commercial, adding more than $500,000 to Fairgrounds’s annual tax bill—more than double the previous amount, reports BlogTO.
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That’s big money for little pickleball, and Fairgrounds now says they’ll have to close the court unless the city changes its mind. “Having activity on this site has been a real benefit for the neighbourhood,” said Jason Glionna of the Yonge + St. Clair BIA, noting the pickleballers brought business to the area.
Likewise, the property’s developer, Originate Developments, was happy to see its land put to good use. “Instead of a boarded-up lot, the community gained a place to play, gather and stay active,” said Originate co-founder Adam Sheffer. “Unfortunately, the current property tax system unintentionally penalizes these kinds of temporary uses.”
He seems to have a point there. MPAC’s criteria for commercial properties don’t say anything about temporary uses. In fact, being able to be “converted to another use without extensive alterations” is one factor that can lead to a property being designated as commercial for tax reasons.
The pickleball courts weren’t exactly residential property, either, and that puts them into legal limbo. Fairgrounds pointed out that, with the condo market in free fall, Toronto could see many similar lots sit empty for longer. If the tax bill is too punishing for small businesses to make use of them, that’s a recipe for a lot of blank spaces.
A minor tax cut to turn vacant lots into community spaces seems like just the kind of thing an urbanist politician would jump on. Mayor Olivia Chow, the pickleball is in your court.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
