Walk up to the WaterColor Tennis Center on a weekday morning and the first five courts look exactly like they always have. Chalk lines fresh, a ball machine running in the corner, someone checking in for a 9 a.m. lesson at a folding table inside a trailer parked where the old pro shop used to sit. Keep walking past that trailer, though, and the ground changes. Orange fencing, gravel, rebar. The pickleball courts have been closed since February, and they are not walkable, playable, or bookable in any form.
That split is the actual story here, and it is easy to miss if you only skim the HOA's construction notices as a single undifferentiated "amenity under construction" update. WaterColor's Tennis Center redevelopment has not paused racquet sports at this address. It has paused exactly one of them. Tennis, on its existing Har-Tru clay, has kept running through demolition, utility work, and foundation pours happening a few hundred feet away. Pickleball has not had a single reservation since February 10.
Two Sports, One Address, Different Years
The reason traces back to the site plan itself. The redevelopment is building a new Fitness Center and Pro Shop and expanding the pickleball footprint to six total courts, and that construction zone sits on the same ground the old pickleball courts occupied. The five clay tennis courts sit adjacent to that footprint, not inside it, which is why bulldozers never had a reason to touch them.
Construction crews began mobilizing in February 2026, and the community association's own updates have tracked the project in wide gaps rather than a steady drip. By May 8, the HOA reported that demolition was still ongoing, utility lines were going in, and crews were pouring footers for the new Pro Shop and Fitness Center foundation. Site work for the pickleball courts was described as nearly finished, with the contractor, American Tennis Courts, set to begin its portion of the build shortly after.
Tennis, meanwhile, never stopped taking reservations. Lessons, drills, and court bookings have continued to run through the temporary trailer for the entire stretch. The three clay courts with LED lighting and the one with stadium seating have all stayed in normal rotation. If your standing Tuesday match is on clay, you may not have noticed a construction project is happening fifty yards away. If your Tuesday match was pickleball, you have spent seven months without a court.
What's Open, What Isn't, Right Now
| Amenity | Status (as of late September 2026) | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Clay tennis courts (5) | Open | 3 courts lit for night play, 1 with stadium seating, check-in at temporary trailer |
| Pickleball courts | Closed since Feb 10, 2026 | Targeted to reopen in fall 2026 with 6 total courts |
| Pro Shop | Operating | Temporary trailer on site, sells gear, strings racquets, rents equipment |
| Fitness Center | Under construction | New addition, opening alongside the pickleball courts |
The HOA has communicated on roughly a quarterly cadence so far, a February mobilization notice followed by a May progress update. That pattern suggests residents shouldn't expect a steady stream of construction bulletins between now and opening. The next substantive update is more likely to arrive close to the actual reopening than as a running commentary on drywall and paint. If you have a specific trip or holiday visit riding on court availability, the tennis office can be reached directly at 850-231-3015 or [email protected], and that call will get you a more current answer than any newsflash archive.
The Parking Pads Aren't Really the Answer, the Trolley Is
Construction also ate into the Tennis Center's already tight parking. The HOA's fix was temporary gravel pads installed on Western Lake Drive and Dandelion Drive, earmarked specifically for tennis patrons rather than general overflow. But the same notice that announced those pads spent just as much space steering people toward a different option entirely: carpool if you can, or request a ride through the WaterColor Trolley app.
It's worth being precise about which trolley that is, because the name gets reused. The regional 30A Trolley is a hop-on, hop-off seasonal service with stops running from Gulf Place through Rosemary Beach and beyond. The WaterColor Trolley is a separate, internal system, complimentary for owners and guests, running daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. with on-demand, point-to-point pickup anywhere inside the community, including the Tennis Center. You request a ride through the app, watch the driver's ETA, and get picked up at your door rather than walking to a fixed stop.
The HOA's notice describes on-site parking as limited during construction and offers the trolley as the door-to-door option. A ride request through the app takes the parking question off the table, and the same app serves the Beach Club, Camp WaterColor, and the community pools, so anyone who sets it up for a tennis lesson or a court booking has it ready for the rest of the community's amenities.
A Fall Date That's Still Just "Fall"
Both the February notice and the May update used the same word for a reopening timeline: fall. Neither specified a month, and as of the community association's most recent posted update, the project page still describes the redevelopment as underway, with no dated reopening notice attached. Florida's fall runs long by most calendars, and a construction project that has already moved from mobilization to foundation pours to contractor handoffs across just two posted updates since February is one where a stated season can drift by weeks without anyone updating the wording on the website.
For pickleball players counting on courts for a Thanksgiving visit or a December trip, the honest answer right now is that "fall" is the only commitment on record, and the safest plan is to check directly with the tennis office closer to your travel dates rather than book a trip around an assumed reopening.
Tennis, for its part, needs none of that hedging. Five clay courts, three lit, one with stadium seating, have been open and bookable through every phase of this project, run out of a trailer that has become a fairly normal fixture on Western Lake Drive. The construction has a finish line. The tennis program never had a reason to wait for it.
If you're weighing what an amenity investment like this actually means for a home's value or its HOA obligations down the line, we've written more on how WaterColor's fee structure works and what it funds. For a broader look at the neighborhood itself, our WaterColor guide covers the rest of the community beyond the Tennis Center, and our breakdown of WaterColor HOA fees is a useful next read if projects like this one have you wondering what else is on the capital plan.
If you're weighing a move into WaterColor and want to understand how projects like this one factor into ownership costs and community decision-making, Randy Carroll Realty knows this HOA's history well enough to walk you through it before you sign anything.
