Pro Padel League Hits Billionaires’ Row

It was balls to the wall at 111 West 57th Street.

The action was not in one of the building’s Central Park-facing penthouses, nor in the 25th-floor Sotheby’s sales office that Nikki Field’s team took over in July, but in a fluorescent, black-walled room on the eighth floor.

(Photos by Nicole Guillen/The Real Deal)

There, a group stood by watching as Sotheby’s brokers, professional padel players and even a The Real Deal reporter made use of the city’s only padel court in a private residence. The Sotheby’s team touted this superlative before less enthusiastically adding that the court is not quite regulation.

Padel, wildly popular in Spanish-speaking countries like Argentina and Spain, takes place in a part-cage, part-glass enclosure and combines elements of tennis (the ball and the net), squash (the use of the wall to return shots) and pickleball (doubles and a smaller court).

The gathering of sweatsuited padelers and sharply dressed real estate players was part of a reception held Nov. 22 for members of the two-year-old Pro Padel League in town for the 2024 finals. Members of the New York Atlantics and the Flowrida Goats attended before their semifinal match at 7 p.m. that evening, which did not prevent at least one member of the Atlantics from an early afternoon glass of champagne. (The Atlantics ended up losing.)

The vast majority of guests at 111 West 57th didn’t quite know the rules or realize that they were playing against some of the world’s best players, evidence that padel hasn’t quite caught hold in America.

“I don’t know his name, I don’t know who he is, but apparently he’s a big deal,” a Sotheby’s broker said at one point, presumably referring to Martin Di Nenno, one of the best padel players in the world.

The event opened on the 58th floor, which gave the padel contingent a chance to stare in wonder at Central Park through the 14-foot floor-to-ceiling windows while the Sotheby’s team regaled this reporter with how much better things are going since they’ve taken over sales.

“This isn’t your grandmother’s Steinway,” Field quipped of the 84-story building that sits atop the landmarked Steinway Hall, calling it “rebranded, rebacked and repriced.” Her team currently has four units under contract and just 18 left to sell, aided by steep price cuts and, according to Field, a slew of new amenities.

Would one of our padel guests be a potential buyer?

“Maybe if I cut off both my arms and both my legs,” said Nico Agritelley, last year’s PPL inaugural MVP. (It’s not clear what the going rate for severed limbs is these days.)

The building’s padel court has been a draw for multiple contract signers, Field said. “Go figure,” she shrugged.

Eventually the court became a draw for the party as well, and groups of brokers, padel players, execs and hangers-on crammed into the elevators (“the fastest in the city!” Sotheby’s broker Jeanne Bucknam exclaimed) to check out the day’s interactive attraction.

In one not-particularly-fast elevator trip, Corcoran’s Carrie Chiang made an appearance when the doors unexpectedly opened on the 68th floor, which happens to be in contract. But there was no room for Carrie, and the doors closed.

At one point, Field took over interviewing duties in an effort to learn more about the game bringing her this flow of visitors.

“Are there any celebrities attached?” Field asked one of the party’s hosts, Maddie Pasquariello.

“Yes, Daddy Yankee is a team owner,” Pasquariello said. Met with a blank stare, she added “he did the song ‘Gasolina.’”

On the court, the star of the show was Sotheby’s Patricia Parker, the resident padel expert on the sales team. “When we were interviewing sales people for this job — the fact she played padel — I think we had to hire her, right,” said Alex Hare, VP of development marketing at Sotheby’s.

Parker, who plays a couple times a week, quickly got into a game against the two league pros before encouraging the amateurs to give it a whirl. “I’ve got a hole in my stocking, there’s no excuse girl,” Parker, who had to ditch her heels early on and was shuffling around in her tights, said in a bid to goad Bucknam, fellow broker, onto the court.

By the end of the day, nearly every attendee was a convert. “I just canceled my 2 o’clock,” Hare shouted in the middle of a game.

The bigger challenge for padel will be converting those who don’t have access to the Billionaires’ Row tower or the city’s handful of swanky padel clubs, which can cost up to $250 for an hourlong four-person game.

“I think that right now the demographic is affluent because it’s so new and especially in places like New York, because real estate is so expensive there’s certain math needed to make it work,” said Pro Padel League CEO Mike Dorfman.

But while padel seeks to gain a foothold in the U.S., luxury buildings and their sales teams may appreciate the air of exclusivity granted from having one of a couple hundred courts in the country.

“I don’t want any other buildings to have it,” Hare admitted.