Former Team USA badminton players buy Marlborough athletic club for $4M
Image | Courtesy of Google Maps
The Wayside Athletic Club in Marlborough is under new ownership after being bought by two Badminton coaches, who were once high-level players themselves.
Former U.S. Olympic badminton player Eva Waller and her husband and fellow badminton player Nick Waller have purchased the Wayside Athletic Club in Marlborough for $4 million, with the hope of attracting more top-level athletes to the facility.
The couple purchased the property located at 80 Broadmeadow St. through their Marlborough-based entity Massachusetts Badminton Realestate Co. on Wednesday from 80 Broadmeadow Realty Trust of Westborough, according to Middlesex South Registry of Deeds records.
Originally from Hong Kong, Eva Waller was a 13-time U.S. adult national badminton champion, representing the United States at the 2008 and 2016 Olympics and won a combined four gold medals at the 2007 and 2015 Pan American Games, according to her Badminton World Federation profile.
[What does 2025 hold for your business and the Central Mass. economy? Take WBJ’s Economic Forecast survey.]
A graduate from Brandeis University in Waltham, Nick Waller won bronze with Team USA in the 2017 Pan Am Badminton Championships and played in several other international competitions, according to the website for HelloBirdie Badminton academy, which the pair now plan to operate from Wayside after a stint in Westborough.
The Wallers are taking over from a ownership group including Wayside General Manager Brian Lynch, who will stay in that role following the ownership change.
Nick Waller told WBJ that Eva and himself have had great success with training young badminton players in Westborough and are looking to build off that success in Marlborough. They are now looking to renovate Wayside with more modern amenities focused on high-performance athletes, hoping to turn it into a place where Olympic hopefuls in badminton and other sports like swimming and tennis regularly train.
“Our goal is to update the facility, bring it back to life, bring it up to what it should be,” Waller said. “We're trying to tie each aspect of the club together and update the fitness center so it supports the highest level of athletics in every area.”
Despite the focus on top athletes, Waller said Wayside will remain welcoming to seniors and children who visit the club for more recreational purposes.
“We are absolutely not trying to alienate any of the population there,” he said. “We're trying to make sure that they have access to the best facility possible.”
Wayside first opened in 1979, with its facility now including indoor and outdoor pools, racquet sports facilities, exercise equipment, and a sauna. The property was given a tax assessment value of $2.55 million for 2024, according to City of Marlborough property records.
The sale of Wayside comes after The Orchard Hills Athletic Club in Lancaster was purchased by a former tech executive in October.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments