Proximo Padel Goose Island Lands in Chicago This December
Proximo Padel Goose Island Lands in Chicago This December
Chicago's second Proximo club is pinned to December 2026 on the city's only island. Here's what is confirmed — and what still isn't.
Proximo Padel Is Opening on Goose Island
Proximo Padel's Instagram bio now carries three pins. The first is the open flagship at 3043 N Knox Ave. The second reads "Goose Island, Chicago (Dec. 2026)." The third, "Northbrook, IL (Jul. 2027)."
That middle pin is the news. Proximo Padel has spent 2026 as a single club on Chicago's Northwest Side. By December, brothers Alex and Victor Vainberg expect to be running a second one — on the only island in the city.
What Proximo has not published is a street address or a court count. Its website lists the location with two words: "Coming Soon." So here is what is confirmed, what the flagship tells us to expect, and where the new club lands on Chicago's padel map.
Why Goose Island
Goose Island is a man-made sliver of land in the North Branch of the Chicago River, dredged out in the 1850s and industrial ever since — tanneries, warehouses and truck docks, with offices and labs replacing them one lease at a time.
For a racquet club, the appeal is geometry: old industrial buildings have clear-span ceilings tall enough to clear a lob, which is the thing padel developers hunt hardest for. The flagship's reported 40-foot ceilings are an outlier even among dedicated clubs — Union Padel Club in the West Loop runs 30 feet, and Saddle & Cycle Club in Edgewater fits its single court under 26.
The location also solves Proximo's real problem: Knox Avenue is a good club in a part of town most downtown players will not drive to on a Tuesday night. Goose Island is minutes from River North, Old Town, Lincoln Park and Wicker Park, and a short hop from the Red Line at North/Clybourn.
What's Planned
Proximo builds every club around the same three parts — padel courts, pickleball courts, and a social hub the brand sums up as "play, connect, belong." At Knox Avenue that is four indoor padel courts, three pickleball courts, changing rooms, lockers and a lounge across 27,000 square feet, open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
The piece Proximo talks about most is not the courts. It is matchmaking: padel needs four players, and the club pairs people by skill level and temperament instead of leaving them to fill a court from a group chat. Alex Vainberg has called that service the company's "secret sauce." Expect it on Goose Island with everything else.
What we do not know is the court count, the building, or the pricing. Proximo has not said it, so we are not guessing it.
Proximo Padel Goose Island
Proximo's second Chicago club, targeting December 2026 — indoor padel and pickleball in the brand's lounge-and-coaching format, aimed at a very different catchment than the Northwest Side flagship. Court count and street address have not been announced; the waitlist at proximopadel.com is where opening-day details land first.
Proximo's Chicago Build-Out
- Knox Avenue — open. Grand-opening weekend ran March 19–22, 2026. Four padel courts, three pickleball courts.
- Goose Island — Dec. 2026. The second city club, and the first one downtown players can reach easily.
- Northbrook — Jul. 2027. The North Shore outpost at 2985 Shermer Rd. Note the year: 2027, not 2026. When Block Club Chicago covered the flagship's opening in March, both expansions were pencilled in for "later this year." Goose Island held its slot; Northbrook moved. We covered it separately in Proximo Padel Northbrook.
Proximo Padel
The club Goose Island is modelled on. The Vainbergs left jobs in tech and trading to spend three years getting it open: a 27,000 sq ft Northwest Side box with four padel courts, three pickleball courts, non-glare ring lighting, and a lounge that works as the room where Chicago's newer players meet each other. Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, bookable without a membership.
Courts: 4 | Type: Indoor
Chicago's Padel Map Right Now
Five clubs carry a Chicago address in our directory. Four are open, with 13 courts between them:
- Union Padel Club — 5 courts, West Loop, 30-ft ceilings, sauna and cold plunge
- Proximo Padel — 4 courts, Northwest Side
- Cube Padel Chicago — 3 panoramic courts, Ashland Avenue
- Saddle & Cycle Club — 1 court, Edgewater, members only
- Proximo Padel Goose Island — opening December 2026
Statewide, Illinois has nine clubs: the five above plus Padel Clube in Mundelein, Club Pickle & Padel in Highland Park, Alma Padel in Glenview, and Proximo's Northbrook project. The suburban cluster north of the city has its own guide; the city clubs are mapped in Where to Play Padel in Chicago, and every US project we track is in the 2026 openings tracker.
What to Expect at Opening
The flagship opened with a four-day launch weekend, free first-timer clinics and free open play in selected slots. A December opening will likely run the same script.
Proximo's pricing is public and unlikely to shift much between locations: a 90-minute padel court is $170 at prime time and $150 off-peak, clinics are $35 a head, private lessons $140, and a $120-a-month membership takes 25% off all gameplay.
One caveat: December dates slip. Nothing about this one looks shaky — it has held since March while Northbrook slid seven months — but a club with no published address two months out is still finishing a build.
We will update the Proximo Padel Goose Island listing as soon as an address and court count are confirmed, and the club will appear in Illinois court availability once its booking calendar opens.
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