Update on Bay Club SF Tennis project


Rendering of 88 Bluxome

San Franciscans for Sports and Recreation (SFFSR) held two meetings on 7/31 and 8/1 to provide updates on the plans for the Bay Club SF Tennis site. The Planning Commission has formally approved plans to develop a major new office project at the current site of the tennis club (the project is called 88 Bluxome), which will include 12 subterranean tennis courts, residential units and public park space as well.

Legal challenges to the Central SoMA redevelopment plan, as well as the condition that the developer locate a site for interim indoor courts prior to the beginning of the construction phase, suggest that the earliest closure date of the club would be Q3 of 2020.

SFFSR provided some key take-aways from the meetings:

  • * The closure of the Club will be tied to interim courts being secured and ready to use. 
  • * The new Club will be 134,150 square feet, which is 16,000 more square feet than the present Club (which is 118,150 square feet), not including the current outdoor courts. 
  • * There will be no outdoor courts according to the negotiated settlement with developer Alexandra Real Estate Equities (ARE). In exchange for the exclusion of the outdoor courts, ARE gave $864,000 to SFFSR resurface public courts in San Francisco. To date, 15 courts in six locations have been resurfaced. By 2020, the number of courts resurfaced under the SFFSR grant to the city of SF will total 19.  The latest two courts resurfaced under SFFSR’s grant to SFRPD are expected to open at Potrero Hill Recreation Center by Labor Day.
  • * ARE also gave $1M toward any sports and recreation projects that were chosen by a SFFSR subcommittee. One such project was the funding for 10 sport chairs for wheelchair basketball at the Gene Friend community center in SOMA. (Another project -- to the tune of $400,000 -- was to the Campaign for Golden Gate Park Tennis Center.)
  • * ARE's project at 88 Bluxome also includes a community pool that will be managed by SF Recreation & Parks Department and be open to the public.

The timeline for the closure of the Club is dependent on several factors, including:

  • * Currently, there are four lawsuits pending against the Central SOMA plan, but not specifically for the Club. It is anticipated that these lawsuits will end in settlements by the end of the year.
  • * Once settlements have been negotiated, ARE can apply for a site permit.
  • * If all goes according to plan, ARE could possibly begin construction by the third quarter of 2020 (around the time the renovated Golden Gate Park Tennis Center is slated to open). 
  • * Construction of the new Club is estimated to take approximately 48 months.

Interim Court Search:

  • * Interim Court search has included at least 20 locations. Some sites have been rejected, some were tabled and some sites are still active.
  • * There are 3 sites that will include up to 9-12 courts in one location, currently under consideration.