The club
A community tennis club for West Pensacola.
Great courts, good people and a reason to linger after the last point. Built by a nonprofit, for the neighborhood.
Why We're Building This
Tennis has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
It started with my mother, Hannelore. She loved tennis, she was good at it, and some of my earliest memories include a racquet and a tennis court. There was even a time when the local newspaper called her the top-ranked woman in Fort Walton Beach. I grew up with tennis simply being part of our lives.
And then life happened.
I became an adult, had children, and tennis disappeared from my life for a long time. I didn't find my way back to it until my 40s.
But when I did, it felt like coming home.
My mother died far too young from MS, so she never got to see this chapter. And I have to laugh when I think about what she would say if she could see what we're doing now. The woman who put a racquet in my hand all those years ago would be absolutely flabbergasted that I'm now building a tennis club.
Not just playing again.
Building the damn club.
That's a huge part of why Gulf Beach Racquet Club means so much to me.
Of course I want beautiful green Har-Tru courts. I want clinics and leagues and juniors and ladies drills. I want competitive tennis and social tennis. I want a random Tuesday night when the courts are full, kids are around, somebody's finishing a lesson, somebody else is starting a league match, and people hang around afterward because they actually like being there.
But underneath all of that is something much simpler.
I know what it means to lose tennis and find it again.
I want Gulf Beach Racquet Club to be a place where people find tennis for the first time, find their way back to it, or simply find their people.
My mother never got to see me do this.
But there is a whole lot of her in it.
— Angela
Our nonprofit mission
Gulf Beach Racquet Club is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The club exists to grow tennis in our community, from first-time juniors to lifelong players, and to give West Pensacola a place to gather around the game. Polished, yes. Stuffy, no. You won't need a secret handshake. You'll need a racquet and, ideally, the right shoes.
What's confirmed, and what's planned
We're careful about this. If something is still a plan, we'll say so.
Confirmed
- Location: 3804 Gulf Beach Highway, Pensacola, FL 32507
- Courts will be green Har-Tru clay
- Registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit
- Development approvals are complete
- The project is moving into the construction phase
Planned
- Clubhouse Concept
- Adult, junior and social tennis programming
- Member Child Watch during select programs and events
- Pro shop: club merch, balls, grips and a demo racquet program
- Full-service racquet stringing
- Concessions
- Club software and mobile app for court booking, payments and event registration
- Founding and general memberships
- Business and court sponsorships
Opening date, membership pricing, program schedules and final facility details have not been announced. When they are, they'll be posted here and shared with everyone on our list.
The clubhouse concept
The rendering shows the direction we've been working toward: white brick, a navy double door, a standing-seam metal roof, a glass gable and a landscaped front walk.
It is a concept, not a construction drawing. Expect details to change as the building moves from paper to dirt to walls.
Where we're building
3804 Gulf Beach Highway, Pensacola, FL 32507
Off Gulf Beach Highway in West Pensacola.
This is a construction site with no public access yet. We'll share progress photos in the construction journal so you don't have to drive by. (We know you want to.)