A major redevelopment of a riverfront parcel in north Minneapolis is nearly ready for construction. But residents who gathered to hear updates on the city-owned Upper Harbor Terminal project grew skeptical last week after hearing that a tennis nonprofit might operate a health and wellness facility planned there. Ta.
Inner City Tennis, which operates tennis programs in 24 public schools and 23 city parks in Minneapolis, offers eight tennis courts and four multi-sport courts (basketball, volleyball, pickleball, badminton, futsal, adaptive sports). We proposed the construction of a health center equipped with medical facilities. An additional 20,000 to 40,000 square feet of space will be set aside for other wellness-related uses, including a cafe, shop, salon and fitness center.
To ensure enough space to realize their vision, the group also plans to change the planned location of the health hub from the heart of the Upper Harbor to a riverfront location currently reserved for manufacturing and production. also proposed.
The proposal prompted mostly negative reactions from residents, who questioned whether Northsiders could afford the $30 court rental fee or whether the entire concept was better suited to suburban communities. Some participants said that when they first conceived of the vague concept of a “health and wellness hub” in Upper Harbor years ago, they envisioned something related to holistic medicine. Others called for more transparency about how Inner City Tennis became United Properties’ preferred operator, saying they had never heard of the organization before. .
What is Inner City Tennis?
Inner City Tennis is best known as the owner of the tennis center at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park. The organization has been around since his 1952 and operates as a nonprofit organization that charges market-rate court and lesson fees to those who can afford them, so that low-income children can play for free.
The organization has offices in South Minneapolis, but also has many participants in North Minneapolis. Northside’s home base was previously the old His V3 Center on Plymouth Avenue, but due to recent renovations to the Athletic Center, Inner City Tennis had to find a new home. Over the past year, under the direction of new program manager and North Side resident Raheem Simmons, we have aggressively expanded into public schools and parks in north Minneapolis.
“I think there’s a misconception that this is going to be 100 percent about tennis,” Simmons said. Simmons said he has been explaining to concerned residents since last week’s meeting that Inner City Tennis should be the “coordinating body” for the health center. You will be tasked with inviting various other wellness providers to share your facilities. “Once they start hearing more about it, you can feel like it makes sense over the phone.”
On Tuesday morning in the Bryn Mawr Elementary School gymnasium, four Inner City Tennis coaches threw balls high over the net for fourth-graders to practice spiking. They taught skills for 55 minutes. When the time was up, the last class ran as a group while another class ran in for a lap. The coach teaches her 2 periods non-stop, takes a 30 minute lunch, plus she teaches 3 periods, and after school she tutors for free at Bryn Mawr every day for 6 weeks straight.
Physical education teacher Anita Chavez had nothing but praise for Inner City Tennis after working with them for seven years.
“They’re walking well. They’re on time. They’re reliable,” she said. “I don’t even know how many kids they’ve probably worked with…I’ve never had any complaints or concerns about Inner City Tennis in all the time I’ve been here.”
After Minneapolis city officials selected United Properties to redevelop Upper Harbor, United Properties hired a former NBA player from a north Minneapolis community to help bring about 500 planned housing units to fruition. They brought in Deveen George, who gained the trust of construction and turned real estate developer. Mr George nominated Inner City Tennis to run the health hub, saying the organization had “great people” with “the right minds”.
“They wanted another location to be in north Minneapolis because there are a lot of kids from north Minneapolis,” George said. “We’re all doing the same thing, so we wanted to collaborate. So why not get together in the same room and think about how we can support each other on bigger projects?” What if we could focus on more children? That was the real beginning.”
Tom Strom of United Properties said Upper Harbor’s plan leaves health hubs a bit “ambiguous” by definition, and that the development team is looking to find an operator with an existing relationship in north Minneapolis. He acknowledged the move is so that plans can be made to attract other Northside businesses to the hub. they. It also needed to be well-organized and capable of raising funds for projects costing tens of millions of dollars.
United Properties spoke with several groups, “some more serious than others,” Strom said. “When it came to inner city tennis in particular, Devian really wanted it to be complementary to what was happening up north, rather than something competitive.”
While conducting feasibility studies and fundraising, Inner City Tennis is compiling answers to questions posed at last week’s town hall in preparation for its next public event (date to be determined). If Inner City Tennis takes over the health hub, it would likely buy the building, enter into a ground lease with the city and sublease the space to other tenants. The city would maintain public ownership of the Upper Harbor land and funnel rental income into a fund that benefits the Northside.
John Wheaton, executive director of Inner City Tennis, said the nonprofit wanted to do more work to see if the community liked what it was doing before committing to Upper Harbor. said it was necessary to do so.
“I know people have certain preconceptions about tennis,” he said. “We’re different than a lot of country clubs and private club tennis. We want to be publicly accessible and we don’t want finances to be a barrier. [tennis] As a way to make connections, give children confidence and create positive social experiences. ”
