Punch Bowl Social founder’s planned Centennial pickleball complex scrapped

Robert Thompson planned two Denver area pickleball facilities that would include restaurants, all wrapped up in a space with rustic summer camp vibes. (BusinessDen illustration)

Things have turned sour for Punch Bowl Social founder Robert Thompson’s planned pickleball complex in Centennial.

The five-acre lot at 7040 S. Kenton St., intended to be one of the first of many Camp Pickle locations, has been listed for sale.

The company bought the land in May 2024 for $3.3 million, according to public records. No work ever began at the site. It’s now listed for $3.65 million.

Thompson didn’t respond to requests for comment. But Sam Caspersen, a member of Camp Pickle’s board of directors, said selling is “a strategic response to the current economic climate.”

“Construction costs remain elevated, and interest rates continue to be high, making ground-up, capital-intensive projects challenging for our company,” Caspersen said in a text.

He didn’t respond to follow-up questions.

Centennial Economic Development Director Neil Marciniak said in an email that he was told Camp Pickle as a whole is finished.

“The City was recently contacted by Camp Pickle notifying us that due to leadership changes they would not be pursuing Camp Pickle projects any further, including the planned Centennial location at 7040 South Kenton Street,” Marciniak said. 

Public records show that architects, designers and engineers have filed liens on the Centennial property for a combined $58,000. The company owes $147,000 in unpaid taxes and $30,000 for permitting fees, per city documents.

Two real estate brokerages, The Zall Co. and True North, have the listing. Zall founder Stuart Zall said he’s “getting a lot of interest from hotels.”

“It’s a great opportunity,” he said. “There’s not a lot of land out in that part of Centennial. Even though it’s suburban, it’s almost like an infill site.”

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.

A rendering of Camp Pickle. (BusinessDen file)

The inaugural Camp Pickle would open in Huntsville, Alabama, Thompson said at the time. That location hasn’t opened either.

Centennial wasn’t going to be the only Denver-area Camp Pickle. Camp Pickle announced in 2023 that it also intended to open in Fox Park, Vita Development Group’s 41-acre project replacing a former Denver Post printing facility in Fox Island.

While work is underway on Fox Park, Camp Pickle’s status there has not been formalized.

“We had a non-binding agreement signed and we had been waiting for the right time to further our discussions,” Vita executive Jose Carredano said Wednesday.

An investment pitch deck dated March 2024 for Camp Pickle and its sister company Jaguar Bolera, another restaurant-meet-games concept that has one location operating in North Carolina, said it had raised $15 million to date, with another $70 million in “real estate developer and in-kind commitments.” It estimated that the Centennial location would cost $31 million to develop.

The pitch documents obtained by BusinessDen said the firm had the backing of former NFL player Drew Brees, former restaurant conglomerate CEOs, mall owner Simon Property Group and venture capital fund Good Alpha, which is a part-owner of Major League Pickleball.

The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, based in Illinois, would fund 100 percent of all land acquisition costs and 70 percent of all development costs, per the documents. 

Thompson’s LinkedIn account says his tenure as CEO of Camp Pickle’s parent company, Joy Trade, ended in January. But he still lists himself as chairman of the board for the business. The company’s onetime director of preconstruction and senior vice president of construction both say on LinkedIn they left the company at the end of last year.

Robert Thompson founded the Denver-based bowling, arcade and restaurant chain in 2012. (BusinessDen file photo)

Thompson rose to prominence through Punch Bowl Social, a restaurant with an arcade and bowling alley he founded in Denver in 2012. He grew it to 20 locations and $120 million in annual revenue, but resigned as CEO in August 2020 after the pandemic shuttered the company’s locations.

Cracker Barrel wrote a $140 million investment in the company down to zero. Punch Bowl filed for bankruptcy in December 2020.

Thompson, meanwhile, will be appearing in court next week for a separate matter.

McWhinney, a downtown landlord, is suing him and his shuttered Three Saints Revival restaurant for hundreds of thousands in back rent and buildout costs. Thompson will likely be representing himself in the matter. His lawyers filed a motion to withdraw from the case, saying that Thompson hadn’t been paying them, and had no plan to pay them going forward.