A demolition worker Tuesday enters the Westbrook building that will soon house indoor pickleball courts. Robert Lowell / American Journal

A large, indoor pickleball facility is coming to a former supermarket site in Westbrook Crossing.

Jeff Maguire is the franchisee of The Picklr, being billed on social media as the largest pickle ball club in the Northeast. It will feature 19 courts and three championship courts.

“We’re under construction right now,” Maguire said Tuesday, and he hopes to open in Westbrook by the end of December or early January.

“We saw a great opportunity to add a sport that is dominating,” Maguire said. “We’re ready to take off. We’re pumped.”

It’s the first The Picklr location in Maine and will occupy the former Westbrook location of Shaw’s that closed in 2022. The site is situated at Westbrook Crossing across Main Street from Rock Row and near Exit 48 of the Maine Turnpike.

A buildout of The Picklr locations will include those through New England, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Jennie Franceschi, director of Westbrook Planning and Code Enforcement, said The Picklr plans do not require Planning Board approval but building permits.

“We’ve just been working with their contractors at this point, which on a renovation like this is normal,” Franceschi said in an email to the American Journal last week.

Contractors have demo work underway inside the Westbrook building, Maguire said, and he plans to see progress there firsthand in a site visit scheduled for Oct. 24.

Maguire, an entrepreneur who lives in Arizona, Florida and New Hampshire, is familiar with the Westbrook area. He put a Crumbl Cookies outlet in Rock Row three years ago and Maguire said he has family in Maine.

The pickleball business will be open 6 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Sunday. Maguire expects to hire 25 employees, both part- and full-time, including coaches.

The Picklr will feature a pro shop retail center, lounge, community room, locker rooms with showers and restrooms.

The founders membership rate for the first 150 people to sign up is $99 a month; the next 100, $109; and after that $119. Leagues will be available and open to drop-ins. It will host a tournament in the spring.

Pickleball is played with light paddles and plastic balls with holes.

Maguire said everyone from kids to seniors can play pickleball. “We want people to enjoy it,” he said.

Maguire said pickleball can be a social event and a path to make friends. “You don’t have to be an athlete to play,” he said.

For more information, visit thepicklr.com/location/westbrook.