Berry plans tennis hotel
The college’s president and Rome’s city manager talk to the Rome Rotary Club about plans surrounding the Rome Tennis Center of Georgia.
A hotel will likely be developed on Berry College property next to the Rome Tennis Center of Georgia, college President Steve Briggs told members of the Rome Rotary Club on Thursday.
Briggs, Rome City Manager Sammy Rich and Scott Bentley, vice president of USTA Georgia, updated the club on the status of the tennis center, which is being built off the Armuchee Connector on property donated by Berry.
“When we started talking about this we talked about creating a village,” Briggs said. He also said retail outparcels could be developed on Berry property near the center.
Rich also said it is still possible the tennis center will include 60 courts when it opens instead of the 51 courts shown now in drawings for the center.
Space for nine additional courts will be graded in the pre-construction process, Rich said.
The center could be completed in June 2016.
Briggs also said the center creates another unique opportunity for Berry — a USTA-sanctioned Professional Tennis Management Certification program. Briggs said Berry has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the United States
Tennis Association for the program.
He said only three other colleges offer the program.
Participants would be
able to receive a bachelor’s degree in sports administration through the program, Briggs said.
Heavy equipment should seriously start
moving dirt on the site beginning next week, Rich said. Silt fences, used to help control runoff, have already been erected.
The special purpose, local option sales tax approved by voters in November 2013 included $11.4 million to pay for the tennis center.