D.C. officials are “pressing ahead with plans to spend nearly” $10M to upgrade the Rock Creek Tennis Center -- even though it “remains unclear who will manage the property moving forward,” according to Alex Koma of D.C.-based WAMU. The city’s new budget includes a total of $9.6M to be devoted to the renovation effort. But the plan “frustrates neighbors and even the councilmember representing the area,” who cannot understand “why the city would devote money to improving the tennis center without clear answers about how it will be spent or even who will get to spend it.” The project has had an “uncertain future” since last year. At first, D.C. planned to “rehabilitate the 39-acre site ... and assume management of it from the National Park Service.” But negotiations over that plan collapsed, leading NPS to instead “start a search for a private operator to lease the land to in order to make repairs to the center.” That process was “supposed to wrap up sometime this spring,” but there has “been no resolution to it yet.” The “clear contender to gain control of the site” is D.C. businessman Mark Ein, who leads the group running the ATP-WTA 500 Mubadala DC Open tennis tournament and “has expressed interest in performing a major overhaul of the grounds.” But NPS officials have “privately raised objections to the process.” The council’s final vote on the budget, where Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George will “attempt to include her amendments on the Rock Creek spending,” is set for Tuesday (WAMU.org, 9/6).
Rock Creek Tennis Center upgrades move forward as operator decision remains unclear
