Community balks at Nadal tennis site
Residents object to putting academy in public Patch Reef Park.
BOCA RATON — Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal has been flirting for at least a year with Boca Raton as the location for his first tennis learning academy in the United States — but community resistance has apparently thwarted that plan.
Nadal, ranked No. 1 in the world, pitched an indoor tennis facility with a restaurant, a rooftop terrace, sports shops and a gymnasium at Boca Raton’s public Patch Reef Park on Yamato Road near Military Trail.
But the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, which owns and operates Patch Reef Park, announced Monday it would end negotiations with Nadal’s company after public outcry.
Many residents, including about a dozen who protested outside a park district meeting Monday, rebuffed the idea of giving up park land to a private tennis center.
“We just do not want any commercialization of our parks at all,” said Michelle Laliberte, a Boca Raton resident who coordinated the demonstration to oppose the Nadal proposal. “I understand the value of an association with Nadal, but not at our public park.”
Arthur Koski, interim director of the beach and park district, started negotiating with Nadal’s representatives last year.
Nadal’s family-operated company pitched the indoor facility, called the Rafa Nadal Academy, to the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District in early April.
“It was just too big and too intrusive,” park district Commissioner Craig Ehrnst said.
There was no formal agree-
ment between Nadal and the park district. The proposal sat with the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District until Monday, when it decided to end negotiations.
But Nadal’s proposal could return later.
The park district announced it will hire a consultant to study Patch Reef Park and its needs. If the study shows a need for indoor tennis courts and a private partnership, the park district would release a public request for proposals, which Nadal’s company could then respond to, along with other private businesses, Koski said.
“There’s a number of folks who are not encouraged by it, but I also heard from people who value an indoor tennis facility and value the Nadal association,” Ehrnst told The Palm Beach Post last week.
Park district Chairman Robert Rollins saw the plans for the first time at a public meeting in early April.
“We were all kind of taken by surprise showing the magnitude of the Nadal center,” Rollins said. “I think that while the project may deserve some consideration, we will listen intently to the tennis community. Anything we do will have their support, or we won’t do it.”
Nadal, who owns a training academy in his home country of Spain, eyed Boca Raton as the spot for his second training center because he wants to move to Boca, Koski said.
“(Nadal’s representatives) said he has a desire to live in Boca Raton,” Koski said.
Nadal’s representatives from Spain could not be reached for comment.
The high-profile association alone was not enough to sway park district commissioners and residents.
“They should be presenting their story, why they think it’s valuable and would add to our community,” Ehrnst said. The district has long planned to upgrade elements of the 55-acre Patch Reef Park, which has a community center, clay outdoor tennis courts and ball fields. A master plan published three years ago outlined the need to upgrade the community center.
Koski said last week that he hopes that Nadal’s proposal would offer funding or a partnership opportunity to rebuild the community center without taking away valued park elements.
“I am disappointed that we haven’t had more input from the Nadal group, in the form of better plans and specific offers,” Koski said. “But I’m hopeful. I think it would be an absolutely wonderful addition to the city of Boca Raton to have an affiliation with someone like Rafael Nadal.”