Tennis Planning Consultants, Inc. (www.tennisplanningconsutltants.com) (TPC), the nation’s oldest independent tennis facility consulting company established in 1970, has recently completed or is working on a number of new facility designs and demographic market studies for several new indoor and outdoor tennis facilities from Michigan to Oregon to Texas to Ohio and to Arkansas.

A market and demographic study in Macomb, Michigan resulted in TPC recommending a ten court indoor project with workout facilities, support space, Quick-Start courts, recommended site plan and construction and operating cost projections. The ultimately ultimately decided to build eight indoor tennis courts. The 5.2 million dollar project has tentatively been approved for financing subject to final real estate appraisals and SBA loan approval. Faudie Architects and Cunningham-Limp Contractors are handling the final design and construction of the project.

Working with local architect, Miguel Hernandez, homebuilder Albert Porter, and structural engineer, Gary Pickett, TPC is designing a highly unique private indoor tennis court in El Paso, Texas for a dermatologist who is a new tennis enthusiast. The court will be connected to the main house for structure and viewing aesthetics on the side of a mountain with views across the El Paso Valley to Mexico. The project will commence construction in the fall of 2011.

Another major tennis market and demographic study was recently completed by TPC for the City of Lake Oswego, Oregon. The town’s four existing indoor tennis courts have been operating at, essentially, 100% capacity for several years and local residents could not easily obtain court time. The Parks Department had seven different sites to analyze and commissioned TPC to analyze each of the seven for tennis location possibilities relative to demographics and site development suitability with construction and operating cost projections for each. TPC helped to conduct three town hall meetings to discuss its findings and recommendations with the result that the best site was selected for ultimate development. The TPC study is being used by the City to obtain revenue bonds to finance the project.

A university in Texas has retained a team of sports facility planners and TPC to determine what site on campus provided the best location for a major new university tennis stadium complex and tennis courts including all support facilities such as offices, locker rooms, training areas and spectator seating. The process is ongoing in order that the facility can be ready for play in 2012.

Texas A & M University retained PBK Architects and TPC to conduct planning and feasibility studies for a new, six court indoor tennis project for its men’s and women’s tennis teams including, what has to be a first in many years, the planning of six outdoor pervious clay courts for the university teams. The planning and design team produced four major design alternatives with cost estimates for each indoor plan. The university is presently analyzing which plan it will ultimately choose to build.

TPC recently designed a grass tennis court for a private residence in Houston and supervised the installation and construction of the project. After exhaustive research, TPC recommended the installation of the newly patented Emerald Dwarf Bermuda Grass (US Patent No. 19,974) which is designed to have deeper roots and a tougher grass ‘thatch’ at the surface. The grass has proven to be ideal for tennis and has proven to require a minimum amount of maintenance. TPC consulted with the All-England Lawn and Tennis Club superintendent, F. E. Seaward, and several east coast tennis club groundskeepers on best and most current grass court design and construction techniques.

TPC recently provided site planning and interior design layouts for a new, four court indoor tennis facility for Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas. The project is currently under design by Fairchild Construction Company.

An Ohio university recently retained TPC to consult with local architects and university officials for the best location and plan for a new, six-court indoor tennis facility.

TPC also completed a tennis market and feasibility study for a new four court indoor tennis facility for George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. Subsequent to positive findings resulting from that market and demographic study, TPC conducted related site planning and site feasibility recommendations for the project. Robert Gray Partners is currently designing the project.

When recently asked to evaluate on a preliminary basis proposed indoor tennis clubs in Dekalb, Illinois, Litz, Pennsylvania, Lexington, Kentucky, St. Louis, Missouri and Fishkill, New York, TPC provided cursory demographic and market analyses and recommendations at no cost in order that the owners of the potential projects could decide if they wanted to proceed on full-blown demographic and market studies. In each case, TPC president, Jack Kamrath convinced the owners to not pursue those locations for new tennis facilities and to save their time, energy and finances for other, more potentially viable locations.

TPC was founded in 1970 by Jack Kamrath, his father, Houston architect and former NCAA tennis champion, Karl Kamrath and Chicago architect, Alfred S. Alschuler, Jr. Alschuler was ASBA’s first reipient of their Industry Merit Award in 1988. He and the elder Kamrath have since died with Jack carrying on providing TPC’s unique, objective and independent tennis facility design, construction and market analyses of all types to the tennis industry and potential and existing tennis facility owners in the United States and abroad in several foreign countries.