Pat and Nicole Bankovich picked up pickleball two summers before their business opened, and much of their outdoor play happened on the courts at Treasure Lake. Over time, Nicole noticed something missing. "There's really no dedicated indoor pickleball facility within about a 50-mile radius," Nicole told The Courier Express. "There are places like the YMCA, but they're not exclusive pickleball facilities."
They looked at warehouses and thought about building from scratch. Then they heard that new management had taken over the DuBois Mall, and they asked about space. The Pickleball Bank opened on April 2, 2026, according to WTAJ.
The courts are part of a bigger change. Many of the mall's newer tenants are places you go to do something, and several of them don't keep mall hours. Some open earlier, some stay open later, and some never close at all.
Two Clocks Under One Roof
The mall's store listings show the standard schedule: Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Below is how the recreation tenants compare, based on each operator's own published hours and prices.
| Tenant | How you get in | When | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Pickleball Bank | Book on CourtReserve | Scheduled sessions, some at 7 a.m. and in the evening | $20 per person for two-hour open play |
| Fore Factory Golf | Book online, no staff on site | 24/7, 365 days | $35 per hour in DuBois |
| Blue Zone Fitness | Membership | 24/7 access | $30 per month single |
| Golden Ticket Cinemas | Ticket at the theater | By showtime | $5.75 general admission on Super Tuesday |
Only the cinema follows a schedule close to the stores'. The other three tenants on the list run on reservations, key access or memberships. They are also the main reason to come to Shaffer Road on a dark weeknight in December.
Pickleball Moved Into the Old Shoe Department
The Pickleball Bank covers about 15,000 square feet. It joined two former storefronts, the old Christopher & Banks and the mall's former Shoe Department. Inside are four courts, a half-court warm-up area, locker rooms with showers, a lounge for spectators, a reception desk and a small pro shop. The name goes back to 2015, when the couple ran an indoor baseball and softball training facility called the Baseball Bank.
Booking happens online through The Pickleball Bank's CourtReserve page, where you can reserve courts, sign up for open play, and register for leagues and events. November's calendar has had two-hour open-play sessions at 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. at $20 per person. Clinics are $30, and a mixed-doubles tournament was listed at $25. The 7 a.m. slot is three hours before the mall's posted opening, so you can play a full session before most shops open.
The couple built the business around the season you're heading into. Nicole Bankovich expects the indoor courts to matter most in colder weather and on days when rain or wind rules out outdoor play. If you spent the summer on the courts at Treasure Lake or in town, this is where those games can continue in January.
Other tenants saw the courts as more than a pickleball project. Before the opening, Suanne Burn, who has run Suanne's Hair Care in the mall for nine years, told WTAJ what she expected the courts to do for the building:
"People are going to be coming into the mall and it's going to give people who don't come into the mall and walk around and see what's here. Now, a chance to see what's here, because a lot of people think there's not much in this mall and they're wrong."
In the same WTAJ story, Burn credited the new mall manager with bringing in new businesses over the previous year.
The 24/7 Tenants Have No Front Counter
Fore Factory Golf takes the separate-schedule idea the furthest. The company says its simulator venues are open "24/7, 365, with no staff," running GSPro golf simulation software, and it has a separate booking link for DuBois. Its published rates list the DuBois simulator at $35 an hour, plus a $20-a-month Players Pass and a $300 10-hour punch card. The 10-hour card works out to $30 an hour, $5 less than the single-hour rate. That matters most to a golfer who plans to keep swinging through the months when local courses are closed. The company also pitches the space for parties and for hanging out with friends and family.
Blue Zone Fitness also offers 24/7 access. Its membership page lists $30 a month for one person, $50 a month for a couple, and $20 a month to add a dependent. Between the gym, the simulators and the early pickleball sessions, the mall has activity at times of day when its shops are dark.
DuBois Music Zone also turns a storefront into a place to do something rather than buy something. Besides selling instruments and equipment, it offers guitar lessons, rehearsal space, and event-planning and DJ services.
The Cheapest Night at the Mall Is Tuesday
Golden Ticket Cinemas has been here the longest of this group. The company took over the former Cinemas V in 2019, and WTAJ reported the reopening that October. Golden Ticket calls the theater the DuBois 5, and the mall's listing describes a five-screen theater with reclining seats and first-run films.
The Golden Ticket ratecard lists adult evening tickets at $11 and matinees at $7.50. Child, senior and military tickets are also $7.50. On Super Tuesday, general admission drops to $5.75 for every show all day, or $8.75 for Elite seating. An adult evening show on Tuesday costs about half what it costs on Friday. The ratecard notes that prices and showtimes can change without notice, so check before you go.
A Tuesday night out can stay inside the building. The mall's food tenants include:
- A Taste Of Q's Soul Food, which serves Southern comfort food like fried chicken, sides and desserts
- Epic Pizza, with pizza, pizza burgers, rolls, pinwheels, salads, hoagies, strombolis and calzones
- Garbage Pit, known for stacked sandwiches and loaded fries
- Uzi's Pastries, a local bakery doing pastries and custom cakes, near JCPenney
- Knot Only Pretzels, whose cook Joseph Bussard, who grew up in DuBois, told WTAJ it was "good seeing new businesses opening up"
Ruby Tuesday, Pizza Hut, Subway and Taco Bell are also in the mall directory. That directory lists maurices and PNC Bank as coming soon.
When the Weather Moves the Walk Indoors
The mall also serves as a backup location for some outdoor activities. Penn Highlands Healthcare runs the DuBois chapter of Walk with a Doc, which meets at 10 a.m. on the last Saturday of each month at DuBois City Park, starting at the Cherry Amphitheater. In bad weather, the group meets inside the DuBois Mall's main entrance on Shaffer Road, between Ross and Big Lots.
The next two walks fall on November 28 and December 26, both Saturdays after a holiday. Late November and late December in DuBois make the indoor location a real possibility. The chapter takes RSVPs through the Walk with a Doc page.
For the holiday itself, the mall's hours page lists the building as closed on Thanksgiving Day, November 26. Fore Factory and Blue Zone advertise 24/7 access, so check with each business directly about holiday-weekend plans.
If you were last at the mall to return a sweater, the building runs on a different schedule now. The posted mall hours still begin at 10 a.m. A 7 a.m. open-play session at The Pickleball Bank has already ended by then. And after the stores close, the golf simulators and the gym are still available.
Nelson Realty follows what opens along Shaffer Road and around DuBois because those changes affect daily life here, from where you play in January to how people describe the area. If you'd like to talk about how the area is changing, or what your own home is worth right now, our office in town is easy to reach. Request a free home valuation whenever it suits you.
