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New Tennis Facility to Open in NYC

New York, NY — The Vanderbilt Tennis Club is currently accepting deposits to play at its new indoor courts and practice facility, nearing final phases of construction, inside Grand Central Terminal in New York City and expected to open in September 2011.

The courts, located on the fourth and a newly-constructed fifth floor overlooking Vanderbilt Hall, will be operated under a leasing arrangement with the MTA, signed in May 2010. Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.

Facilities will include one full-size court and several practice alleys. Lounge and locker facilities will also be constructed, in a space totaling approximately 8,800 sq. ft. The main court boasts an amazing view of Central Park South, through a previously shrouded, 15-foot high, half-circle window.

In the 1960s, the space was home to a 65-foot, indoor ski slope made of plastic brush that simulated packed snow.

Prior to that, CBS television operated the space as a TV studio, from where it broadcast productions including “The Jackie Gleason Show,” “What’s My Line?” and Edward R. Murrow’s “See It Now.”

The construction of this new tennis facility, which will also include an extension of an existing elevator, was a complicated process, requiring 7-ton steel I-beams to be raised from street level onto a custom-made trolley system, similar to a coal mining track, that brought the pieces through a side window of Grand Central and into the space, where they were lifted into place.

The contractor for the project is F.J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc.

Rendering attached, courtesy of Vanderbilt Tennis Club, LLC. For more images please contact jfisher@rubenstein.com.

To inquire about reserving court time, contact Vanderbilt Tennis at 614-775-9269 or vanderbilttcgct@aol.com.

Posted on February 8, 2011
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