New Pierce County sports complex will have pickleball, turf fields and a trail
A 20-acre property in the Buckley area is now one step closer to becoming a local sports complex.
The City of Bonney Lake, which owns the property, announced Tuesday afternoon that it plans to sell the Reed Property on Barkubein Road near 72nd Street East.
John Vodopich, Bonney Lake’s city administrator, told The News Tribune that the Mt. Rainier Futbol Club is interested in buying the land and using it to construct an athletic complex with pickleball courts, soccer/lacrosse fields and a trailhead.
The News Tribune spoke to Cathy Dahlquist, one of the leaders on the project, and she said the project has been in development since 2023. The sale is the next step in bringing the project to fruition.
Dahlquist said the facilities will be free to the public.
What will the new sports complex look like?
Dahlquist told The News Tribune the facility will have a covered pickleball pavilion with 10 courts, two grass fields for soccer or lacrosse and an educational trail that will connect to the Foothills Trail.
Her idea sprouted in 2023, when she was using pickleball to cope with a rough time in her life.
“I found pickleball and then, honestly, I went into my own community – I live in Enumclaw – and I created a trust, hoping to build some type of facility within the City of Enumclaw,” Dahlquist said.
But instead, she ended up partnering with Scott Knall, the president of the Mt Rainier Futbol Club, who she had known for years.
“He and I kind of reconnected after all these years and said, ‘Maybe we can form this, we can use the MRFC – I’m looking for a place to build a facility,’” Dahlquist said. “We partnered up and said, ‘Let’s solve all the world’s problems, as far as parks – with a new spin on it, and let’s try to do some public-private partnerships.’ The City of Bonney Lake was interested, and they had a piece of property.”
Since 2023, Dahlquist has focused on getting funding to develop the project. The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) has donated a $1.5 million grant to construct the pickleball courts – and another $1.2 million Community Outdoor Athletic Facilities grant. This brings the total to $2.7 million in funding.
“Now we have the funding – I did all the grant applications and they were successful,” Dahlquist said. “We will continue to write grants to complete the project, and those will probably be federal grants we’re working on. We applied for one we didn’t get, [and there are] two others in the works.”
Dahlquist said the city reached out to her earlier this summer and asked the MRFC to buy the land instead of partnering with the city.
“We worked with the City of Bonney Lake, we got the project in the [comprehensive] plan, the parks plan,” Dahlquist said. “This is the last piece: the state either needs that long-term lease agreement or a purchase, and the city kind of pivoted and said, ‘We want you to buy it,’ and we said, ‘Well, you need to go through that public process.’”
What will the land sale look like?
The city will hold a public hearing on Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. at the Bonney Lake Justice & Municipal Center at 9002 Main St. This public hearing is the first step in selling the land.
“Community members are invited to attend and provide public testimony. Written comments may also be submitted in advance to the City Clerk,” the city wrote in a Facebook post.
After the public hearing, Vodopich said, he expects the land to be declared a “surplus property,” which will allow the Bonney Lake City Council to authorize the sale.
The News Tribune asked both Vodopich and Dahlquist how much the MRFC is expecting to pay for the land. They both declined to give specifics because they have to go through public hearings and appraisals first. Dahlquist said the grants will not pay for land acquisition, and that money will come from MRFC’s funds.
Vodopich said the city bought the Reed Property in 2010 for $1.06 million so they could drill a well and increase the water supply.
“We drilled a test well on the property and the amount of water we were able to obtain was not sufficient enough for municipal water supply purposes,” Vodopich said.
Vodopich said the city wants to sell the property because they simply don’t need it anymore.
“It’s surplus to our needs,” Vodopich said. “We originally acquired it to drill a well and get water off the property, that did not work out, and that is way outside the city limits.”
What is next for the project?
Dahlquist said that once the MRFC owns the land, they can start to go through the engineering, designing and permitting process. She said the pickleball courts will be the first part of the facility to be built.
When The News Tribune asked her when residents can expect to play on the pickleball courts, she said they are estimated to open between the fall of 2026 and spring of 2027.
“Pickleball will be the very first thing to be completed and that will be completed with the grants we have,” Dahlquist said. “Then the infrastructure, some of the demo or stormwater – whatever we can get done with the rest of the money that we have [from the grants].”
She said they will work on the two grass fields after the pickleball courts wrap up, and then collaborate with the Puyallup and Muckleshoot tribes to create a trailhead connecting to the Foothills Trail.
“Scott Nall and I are very excited to see it through to the end – whatever that takes,” Dahlquist said.
This story was originally published August 11, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
