A Lakewood sports club has a new name and new courts.
Denver Racquets Club is in full swing after over 50 years as Meadow Creek Tennis and Fitness Club at 6305 W. 6th Ave.
“For many years it was tennis only at the club… but in the fall of 2024 and summer of 2025 we added pickleball and padel,” owner Ian Hintz said. “So now we have four racquet sports and are fairly centrally located in the Denver metro, and we felt that it made sense.”
Hintz bought the club a year ago and has since upgraded the inside of the 60,000-square-foot facility. That includes new lighting and fans for DRC’s seven indoor tennis courts and other tweaks around the edges of the fitness center.
Those changes fit in nicely with the club’s two platform tennis courts, which are also on the main property, and two indoor pickleball courts in a satellite facility a few minutes down the road at 679 Sheridan Blvd.
Hintz, who is the boy’s tennis coach at Kent Denver School, also opened four padel courts this past weekend to capitalize on what he dubbed the world’s fastest growing sport. It combines elements of tennis and squash in an enclosed area where the walls are part of the game.
“The padel community is growing quickly, and we’re really excited to be on the front end of that,” Hintz said.
In the future, Hintz wants to continue giving the indoor spaces a facelift with things like new locker rooms, food and beverage offerings and possibly day care. He also wants to add sports like squash, badminton and table tennis. That’ll ideally be alongside outdoor pickleball courts, which he said could come via another satellite setup like DRC’s indoor ones.
“We have a lot of things in the works, but a lot of it is conjecture at this point,” he said.
Hintz bought the business from Adam Kahn, who owned it for two decades but sold it to focus on a separate pickleball-only business. Hintz said he’s increased the number of members from around 600 to about 1,000.
Before, members paid fees for specific features, like tennis or the gym. Now, adults pay $35 or $50 a month depending on age for all the club’s offerings, plus an initiation fee of $175 or $250. The courts are still open to non-members, who pay a daily fee of $5 or $10 depending on age.
“We’ve seen large growth in membership and still have a lot of capacity,” Hintz said. “Individuals that are wanting to play multiple racquet sports, we’re a good home for them.”
