On July 13, 2026 the Midlothian Tennis Club at 3650 Brandermill Parkway changed hands for $900,000. County records show the same property last sold on January 25, 2007, also for $900,000. In between, the owners built an indoor facility on it, and the county's 2024 assessment puts the land and buildings together at $1,794,200.
This post covers who bought it and what they intend to do with it, why the price is the most interesting number in the deal, and what the padel business the buyer is betting on actually looks like in Virginia today. It also draws a line under two name collisions that are going to cause confusion locally.
At a glance
What sold: the Midlothian Tennis Club, 3650 Brandermill Parkway, a 31,272-square-foot facility on just under five acres with 4 indoor and 12 outdoor courts, all clay.
The price: $900,000 for the property, closed July 13, 2026. Payment for the business assets was not disclosed, so no total deal value is public.
The buyer: Epic Padel, a Northern Virginia company, which plans to rebrand the site as Epic Athletic Club.
The plan: four outdoor padel courts by the first quarter of 2027, more over time, with some tennis courts retained.
The seller's explanation, in one sentence, from Ken Baker: "It's hard making money in the tennis center."
Nineteen years, no nominal gain
The club began as part of Brandermill Country Club and was owned by it. Ken Baker's group bought it from the country club about twenty years ago and built the indoor courts a year later. County records line up with that account: the last recorded sale of 3650 Brandermill Parkway was January 25, 2007 at $900,000, the owner of record is Midlothian Tennis LLC, and the improvement is recorded as built in 2008.
Set the two transactions side by side and the arithmetic is the story.
Figure | Amount |
|---|---|
Recorded sale price, January 25, 2007 | $900,000 |
Sale price to Epic Padel, July 13, 2026 | $900,000 |
County 2024 assessment, land | $356,200 |
County 2024 assessment, improvements | $1,438,000 |
County 2024 assessment, total | $1,794,200 |
Nineteen and a half years produced no nominal gain on the land and building, and the 2026 price is roughly half what the county assesses the property at. An indoor facility was built in that window and the recorded price did not move.
That is worth sitting with, because it says something about single-purpose recreational property that a business owner in any sector can use. The transferable value in a club like this was never mostly in the dirt. It was in the member book and the staff, and neither of those appears in the one number that became public.
What the buyer says it intends
These are stated intentions from July 2026, not outcomes, and the wording matters. Epic said its five full-time and 15 part-time employees "will all remain," and that the nearly 250 active members "can all have their memberships transferred." Those are commitments about the future rather than things that have happened, and this post does not report them as accomplished.
Also unpublished: no membership price for the Midlothian site, no contract date, and no total consideration. The county's parcel layer still lists Midlothian Tennis LLC as the titleholder because it has not been refreshed since the sale, so it is not evidence of anything about current ownership.
The sport the bet rests on
Padel is a racquet sport played on an enclosed court smaller than a tennis court, almost always in doubles. The participation numbers are real but small, and the two available sources disagree on court supply.
Figure | Source |
|---|---|
1,073,000 Americans played padel in 2025 | United States Padel Association, April 2026, citing SFIA's 2026 Topline Participation Report |
"Just over 1,000 courts open across 31 states as of April 2026" | United States Padel Association, April 2026 |
"Fewer than 700 courts" | Epic Padel's own September 2025 announcement |
Three Virginia facilities listed: Sterling, Charlottesville and Richmond | United States Padel Association |
The lower court figure comes from the buyer and predates the higher one by seven months, so both may be right for their moment. Either way, a sport crossing one million American players with about a thousand courts is a supply story, which is the case for building courts rather than the case for having already won.
Epic raised about $10 million in September 2025 to expand in the United States. Its one confirmed open club as of that month was Charlotte.
Two names to keep straight
This matters locally, and it will be got wrong.
Epic Athletic Club, the new name for 3650 Brandermill Parkway, is not the Midlothian Athletic Club at 10800 Center View Drive. They are separate businesses with separate owners. We wrote about the Midlothian Athletic Club and the withdrawn apartment rezoning on its site in a separate post. Nothing in this deal touches it.
"Epic Athletic Club" is also the name of an unrelated business in Florida. Say "Epic Athletic Club in Midlothian" if there is any chance of confusion.
What to watch
The four padel courts. Promised for the first quarter of 2027. Built courts, not announced ones, are the thing to check.
Whether the staff and the members actually carry over. Both were stated as intentions in July 2026. A year from now there will be an answer.
How much tennis survives. Some courts are to be retained. How many, and whether clay stays clay, decides whether existing members recognise the place.
The titleholder record. The county's layer will refresh eventually and confirm the transfer.
Epic's other clubs. An operator with roughly a year of history at one confirmed open club has taken on a facility whose seller reported nearly 250 active members.
Read more
Midlothian Tennis Club sold to NoVa firm that's betting big on fast-growing racquet sport padel, Richmond BizSense, July 31, 2026, the only original reporting on this deal
Padel Surpasses One Million Players in the United States, United States Padel Association, April 13, 2026, citing SFIA's 2026 Topline Participation Report
Epic Padel Secures $10 Million to Accelerate U.S. Expansion, September 28, 2025, which carries the company's own "fewer than 700 courts" figure · Epic Padel's site
Midlothian Tennis Club, the club's own site, still live as of publication
The sale price, closing date, employee and membership figures, the plan for padel courts and the Ken Baker quote are from Richmond BizSense, July 31, 2026, which is the only newsroom to have covered this deal. The 2007 recorded sale, the acreage, the 2024 assessment figures and the owner of record are from Chesterfield County records; BizSense describes the property as five acres where county records give 4.956. No total deal value exists publicly, because payment for the business assets was not disclosed. We could not establish the year the club was founded as a tennis facility, the contract date, or whether Epic's Milwaukee or Tysons Corner locations are open, and have not guessed at any of them.
Last updated September 17, 2026.