The massive redevelopment of a north Minneapolis riverfront parcel is almost ready for construction. But residents who gathered to hear updates for the city-owned Upper Harbor terminal project turned skeptical last week when they heard that a tennis nonprofit might run a health and wellness facility planned there.

InnerCity Tennis, which operates tennis programs in 24 Minneapolis public schools and 23 city parks, suggested building a health hub containing eight tennis courts and four multisport courts (for basketball, volleyball, pickleball, badminton, futsal and adaptive sports). An additional 20,000-40,000 square feet of space would be set aside for other wellness-related uses that could include a cafe, shops, a salon or fitness center. The group also proposed — in order to get enough space to pull off their vision — changing the health hub’s planned placement from the center of Upper Harbor to a spot currently reserved for manufacturing and production on the river’s edge.

The proposition drew mostly negative reactions from residents who questioned whether North Siders could afford $30 court rental fees or if the whole concept was better suited for some suburban community. Some attendees said that when the vague notion of a “health and wellness hub” had been floated for Upper Harbor years ago, they pictured something related to holistic medicine. Others demanded greater transparency around how InnerCity Tennis came to be United Properties’ preferred operator, saying they’d never heard of the organization before.

Who is InnerCity Tennis?

InnerCity Tennis is best known as the owner of the tennis center at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park. It has been around since 1952, operating as a nonprofit that charges those who can afford to pay market-rate court and lesson fees so that lower-income children play for free.

The organization has its offices in south Minneapolis, but many participants in north Minneapolis as well. Its North Side base used to be the old V3 Center on Plymouth Avenue, but when the athletic center underwent its recent reconstruction, InnerCity Tennis had to look for a new home. Over the past year, it expanded aggressively into north Minneapolis public schools and parks under the direction of its new programs manager and North Side resident Raheem Simmons.

“I think there’s the misconception that this is going to be 100% tennis-related,” said Simmons, who has been explaining to concerned residents since the meeting last week that should InnerCity Tennis become the “coordinating entity” at the health hub, they would be tasked with inviting a variety of other wellness providers to share the facility. “Once they start to hear more about that, you can just feel it on the phone, that it makes sense.”

Tuesday morning in the Bryn Mawr Elementary gym, four InnerCity Tennis coaches tossed balls high over the net for fourth graders to practice spiking. They taught skills for 55 minutes. At the end of the hour, another class ran in for laps as the last filed out. The coaches teach nonstop for two periods, take a half-hour lunch, teach three more periods and tutor after school every day for six weeks straight, free to Bryn Mawr.

Gym teacher Anita Chavez had nothing but praise for InnerCity Tennis after seven years of working with them.

“They walk the walk. They’re on time. They’re reliable,” she said. “I don’t even know how many thousands of kids they’ve probably worked with … I have never had one complaint or worry about InnerCity Tennis the whole time I’ve been here.”

After the city of Minneapolis chose United Properties to redevelop Upper Harbor, United Properties brought in Devean George, a former NBA player turned real estate developer with community-building credibility in north Minneapolis, to help make some 500 units of planned housing a reality. George recommended InnerCity Tennis as the health hub operator, saying the organization has “great people” with “hearts in the right place.”

“They wanted another location to be in north Minneapolis because they have a lot of kids from north Minneapolis,” George said. “We’ve been looking to collaborate because we all do the same thing. So why don’t we get in the same room and say how can we support each other? Why don’t we make it a bigger project, so we’ll be able to focus on more kids? That’s really how it started.”

Tom Strohm of United Properties acknowledged that Upper Harbor plans left the health hub somewhat “nebulous” by definition so that the development team could find an operator who had an existing relationship with north Minneapolis and a plan for inviting other North Side businesses into the hub with them. They also had to be well organized, with the fundraising strength for a project that will cost tens of millions of dollars.

United Properties talked to several organizations, “some more serious than others,” said Strohm said. “Specifically with InnerCity Tennis, Devean really wanted it to be complimentary to what’s happening in north and not competitive.”

InnerCity Tennis is putting together answers to the questions posed at last week’s town hall in preparation for its next public engagement event, to be determined, while conducting feasibility studies and fundraising. If InnerCity Tennis takes over the health hub, they would likely purchase the building and enter into a ground lease with the city and sublease space to other tenants. The city will retain public ownership of the land at Upper Harbor and funnel rent proceeds into a fund benefitting the North Side.

InnerCity Tennis Executive Director John Wheaton said the nonprofit needs to do more outreach to make sure the community likes what they’re doing before committing to Upper Harbor.

“I know people have certain preconceptions about tennis,” he said. “We’re unlike a lot of country club, private club tennis. We want to be publicly accessible, we don’t want finances to be a barrier, and we want to use [tennis] as a means to make connections and build confidence in kids and create positive social experiences.”