Harlem Tennis Program Plans $50M Expansion To Serve Thousands More

HARLEM, NY – The Harlem Junior Tennis & Education Program (HJTEP), a longstanding neighborhood nonprofit dedicated to building champions on and off the tennis court, is ready to expand.

“Our program is going to be 53 years young next year – we’ve been around since 1972 – and we are bursting at the seams at our current location,” said executive director and former tennis pro Katrina Adams.

“We’re not looking to leave our current facility” – the Harlem Armory Center on West 143rd Street near Harlem River Drive – “but to expand outside of its walls. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and we’re going to have to raise a lot of money, but this facility would not only serve more youth in Harlem, it would serve kids from all over the city. Plus, we would also be able to serve an adult population. Tennis is one of the healthiest sports and our adults also need health and wellness opportunities.”

16 Courts

The dream is ambitious: the first fully public indoor tennis facility in Manhattan – plus outdoor courts.

Adams envisions 16 tennis courts – eight indoor and eight outdoor – in a building that could span an entire city block, along with classrooms, locker rooms, a cafeteria, community spaces, and administrative offices.

“It would be a self-sustaining public facility. We would be able to rent court time, run clinics and leagues, and to host our own events as well as events for others,” she explained.

Currently serving over 800 children with a waitlist of 500, the new facility would increase capacity to approximately 2,500 students annually, according to Crain’s, which first reported on the expansion plan.

“We are putting kids in college year after year, from the Ivy Leagues to community colleges and everything in between,” Adams said. “I know there are hundreds of people, thousands of people out there who would want to support this initiative - and I don’t need that many people,” she added.

A $50-$75M Raise

To achieve its vision, HJTEP is exploring multiple real estate options, including purchasing property, a long-term lease, or a partnership with a developer or other entity. Finding suitable space in Harlem is no small task, and high property costs and limited availability mean the organization will need to remain flexible.

Arthur Mirante, a vice chairman at global real estate services firm Savills who is advising HJTEP, noted that a comprehensive request for proposals (RFP) is being finalized and will soon be distributed. “It’ll be widely broadcast, and that’ll be the document that we’ll use to tell the world what [we’re] looking for,” Mirante said.

HJTEP is also preparing a capital campaign to fund the project, which will include selling naming rights for the facility.

“This will probably be a $50 to $75 million raise, depending on the location,” Adams said. “I’m looking for 129,000 square feet, for a one-of-a-kind space. This will be a magnificent facility, and it’s a great opportunity for anybody who wants to put their name on a building or a court.”

‘Takes A Village’

Mirante likened HJTEP's expansion to his previous work with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Over a decade ago Mirante helped Ailey realize a transformative vision for a new building, overcoming financial and logistical challenges to create a facility that became an institutional cornerstone.

“I was on the board for Alvin Ailey, and Judith [Jamison, the artistic director at the time] got up and said, ‘You guys gotta help me. Our dancers are changing their clothes in the hallway. We have no AC. You gotta get me a new building,’” Mirante recalled. “‘The new building will also help us raise money, it’ll give an institutional quality to the organization – a permanence – it’ll help with everything, and that’s my dream.’"

"Somebody raised their hand and said, ‘But Judith, we have no money.’"

"‘That’s why I have all you rich people on my board!’ she replied. ‘We gotta get going, folks.’”

“At the time I was CEO of Cushman & Wakefield, and I went to work on it and we got lucky. We found the building, but it was Joan Weill, Sandy Weill's wife, who said, ‘Sandy and I will give you the money to buy the site.’”

‘2029 Would Be Ideal’

Mirante believes HJTEP might get lucky, too.

“This kind of project really takes a village, and the key is to manage the timing so that when we find the site we’re able to execute on it,” he said.

The group will soon meet with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Mayor Eric Adams’ office.

“I would love to be cutting the ribbon at the end of 2028. That’s a fast track. 2029 would be ideal,” Adams said.

“Anything is possible, right? I’m a server and volleyer, not a boom baller,” she laughed.

Adams has been with HJTEP for nearly 20 years, and joined the organization because she understood and believed in its mission.

“I know what this sport does. I grew up in inner-city Chicago, and that’s one of the reasons I came to this organization: to provide the opportunities that I received through the sport to others.”

More information about HJTEP is available here.