The folks who built The Fort pickleball complex at Snyder Park are making good on their promise to build what they’re calling Snyder Yard, a new campus for the Fort Lauderdale Parks and Recreation Department.
Two new one-story buildings — one designed for administrative offices and the other serving as a maintenance and repair shop — will rise between Snyder Park and Floyd Hull Stadium at 3110 SW Eighth Ave. The 5-acre project is scheduled for completion in mid-2027.
The developer is chipping in nearly $1 million for a project that’s costing close to $6 million, said Commissioner Ben Sorensen, whose district includes the neighborhood.
“I believe in being very fiscally responsible and fiscally conservative,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “This was an opportunity where the private sector would provide significant funding. We’re going to have a state-of-the-art parks and recreation facility. And the private sector is helping pay for this building, which is amazing.”
The project will cost $5,764,625, with taxpayers kicking in $4.9 million and the developer My Park Initiative covering the remaining $864,625.
The developer’s $30 million pickleball complex opened in early December 2024. Known as the world’s first dedicated pickleball stadium, the complex has 43 courts, a 2,000-seat stadium, pro shop and restaurant.
Critics came out in force to oppose the project before it was built, but commissioners argued it would help activate the park and put Fort Lauderdale on the map.
The developer is required to share a portion of the profits from the pickleball operation with the city. The total paid for 2025, the first year of operation: $150,000, the minimum amount required under the contract, city records show.
In addition to building a new pickleball complex, the developer agreed to create new offices for the city’s parks employees as part of the deal.
Five buildings are currently on the project site. All need to be demolished because they contain asbestos, said Ellyn Bogdanoff, attorney for My Park Initiative.
The developer agreed to demolish the buildings even though it was not part of the original plan.
The original agreement required the developer to rehabilitate a building already on the site to provide a workspace for parks employees.
A woman and her dog sit beside the lake at Snyder Park on March 25, 2026. Snyder Yard, a new campus for Fort Lauderdale’s Parks and Recreation Department, is slated for construction next to the park. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
That building was flooded during the record-breaking rainstorm that swept through town on April 12, 2023. After the storm, city officials determined the building needed to come down.
That also impacted the cost.
“Originally we thought it was only going to cost $1 million (to rehab the building),” Bogdanoff said. “The flood changed things. And then we found out there was asbestos. We are removing asbestos now and will demolish all the buildings. It’s probably best they come down.”
The same architect that designed The Fort is designing the new campus for the city’s parks employees.
“We showed parks (officials) some renderings and they absolutely love it,” Bogdanoff said. “They gave us their laundry list of what they needed. And the architect came up with the concept. It’s going to be a beautiful campus for Parks and Rec. They have never had their own campus. They are really excited about getting their own campus.”
A fence on Southwest Eighth Avenue, shown on March 25, marks the end of the road adjacent to Snyder Park. Neighbors are worried about traffic that will come when the new campus for Fort Lauderdale parks workers opens next year. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Fort Lauderdale’s Parks and Recreation department employs 284 people full time. About 140 of them will report to the new facility when it opens, city officials say.
The new facility will generate 180 daily trips from more than 70 maintenance trucks and at least 100 personal vehicles, city records show.
And that’s giving some residents who live in neighboring Edgewood heartburn.
There are three ways the Parks and Recreation workers can get to their new campus.
From the south, they could use the main entrance at Snyder Park on Southwest Fourth Avenue. And from the north, they could take Southwest 28th Street to Southwest Eighth Avenue, which runs along the western side of Floyd Hull Stadium. They can also use a road that runs through the east side of Floyd Hull Stadium, a city-owned baseball stadium and park built in the late 1950s at 2800 SW Eighth Ave.
Two community activists spoke up at a recent meeting, telling city staff they oppose any plan to bring trucks through Snyder Park or Eighth Avenue.
“We definitely in the neighborhood said we don’t want cars going through Snyder Park,” Debbie Nast, treasurer of the Edgewood Civic Association, told staff at the Development Review Committee meeting. “It’s not a roadway. It’s a park.”
Ted Inserra, president of the civic association for neighboring River Oaks, argued that Eighth Avenue won’t work either.
“It’s a residential neighborhood with 100 more cars and 70 trucks coming through a neighborhood with two-lane roads and no sidewalks,” Inserra said.
Inserra, one of dozens of critics who objected to The Fort complex being built in a city park, suggested another option that was not being considered.
“Why don’t you bring them on Perimeter Road right through The Fort and let them deal with it,” he said.
Kitty McGowan, president of the Edgewood Civic Association, says she was not at the meeting but heard all about it.
She too has her concerns, she said.
“There are three schools nearby and people all come and go around 3 p.m.,” she told the Sun Sentinel. “The parks people also leave at 3 p.m. And the staff at the Broward County Health Department down the road get out between 3 and 4 p.m.”
McGowan is also worried about the fact that trucks carrying trash could drive right by the playground at Floyd Hull Stadium.
“Who wants to be in a playground and have trucks going by with garbage?” she said.
A waste transfer station and seaweed disposal mound were moved to the site of the future Parks and Rec campus when The Fort pickleball courts were built.
They will remain onsite even after the new campus is built so that waste gathered daily from the city’s parks can be consolidated into dumpsters.
“There’s going to be a lot of garbage trucks and big construction trucks coming and going through the neighborhood,” McGowan said. “We also don’t want a bunch of trucks and cars going through Snyder Park. But I can’t stop that building from going up.”
Sorensen, the district commissioner, says he has met with neighborhood leaders and is well aware of their concerns.
“We’ve been working closely with the neighbors on how traffic will enter and exit the site,” he said. “I’ve said, ‘Whatever way you think is best, I’m happy to champion that.’ I want the neighborhood to make the decision on which plan they like best.”
It’s only natural for residents to be concerned about the extra traffic that will be funneling through the neighborhood once the new campus is built, Sorensen said.
“It’s fair to have concerns about the demolition happening right now and the traffic flow,” he said. “All the feedback we get makes it better. It makes sure we are ensuring public safety in and around our parks.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan