Pingpong players, prepare.
Ash Properties and operator Dennis Klee are planning to build-out Smash pingpong in Baymeadows Junction at Philips Highway and Baymeadows Road.
The almost 13,000-square-foot space will accommodate 20 pingpong tables, two bars, a kitchen and restaurant seating for 265 people, Klee said Tuesday.
There also will be four private areas for corporate and other events.
Smash is planned at 8206 Philips Highway, next to Scan Design. Ash Properties’ leadership owns Baymeadows Junction.
“I think it’s going to go over very, very well,” Klee said, using the Topgolf bays as an example of fans waiting to play.
Smash will rent tables by the hour. Those waiting will be given a pager and can, like at Topgolf, patronize the restaurant and bars.
Klee sees the potential for group visits. “I will invite every Cub Scout and Boy Scout troop to get their pingpong merit badges,” he said.
Klee, who owned the Harmonious Monks restaurants, said Smash is like a spinoff of SPiN, the pingpong social club started by actor Susan Sarandon and co-founders in 2009 in New York.
SPiN added locations in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Seattle, Philadelphia and Austin, Texas with more on the way.
“We are united by ping pong,” says the wearespin.com site. It says it has seen the growth of an iconic ping pong culture, lifestyle and movement.
“It’s a sport that connects people regardless of age, gender or background” and is about “having fun, not taking life too seriously, making connections and embracing contradictions.”
SPiN has tournaments, private events — and people just wanting to book a table.
“That was the germ,” Klee said. “We didn’t invent the wheel, but we are making it better.”
Klee expects to open in early April, pending approvals and construction. He said build-out costs are yet to be determined.
Klee said he created Harmonious Monks, an entertainment-based restaurant, in 1995, eventually operating three. He closed two and sold the remaining one in 2014.
He opened Klee’s Music in Saint Johns, where he sells and leases musical instruments.
Klee said Jacksonville-based Ash Properties, which develops self-storage projects and retail centers, was interested in the pingpong concept and contacted Klee.
“We’ve been designing the floor plan and the food plan and the whole concept,” he said.
In addition to working in music and restaurants, Klee also plays pingpong.
