INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The new owner of the once-popular tennis club at Timber Ridge said he knows what he’s getting into.
“I’m hesitant to say too much right now, because I’ve heard all about the promises people have made in the past,” Tom Van Deinse said after closing last week on his $800,000-plus purchase of the club, built in the 1980s and located on Oslo Road. “And I’m sure the previous owners had the best of intentions.
“But this isn’t anything new to us,” he added. “We’ve done this with a number of clubs before. We have a history of taking over places and building them up, and we’re excited about the possibilities here. “We’re prepared to make the necessary investment.”
Van Deinse, 56, a longtime northern Michigan teaching pro who has managed several tennis clubs and, along with his wife, Betsy, owned a gymnastics club in Traverse City, said he plans to resurface the 12 Har-Tru clay courts, install better lighting for night play, replace windscreens and make improvements to the clubhouse and pool area.
The 3,500-square-foot clubhouse includes a fitness center, pro shop, bar and office. Three other courts at the rear of the seven-acre complex might be converted to hard courts to accommodate juniors or even a tennis academy.
“The first thing we need to do is get the courts in shape, so we’ll put a ton of money into that,” said Van Deinse, who taught tennis for 17 years at The Homestead resort in Glen Arbor, Mich. “We’re about an inch short of clay on every court.
“Then we’ve got to do some housekeeping,” he added. “We had a really thorough inspection of the property done, and there’s a nice list of issues we need to address – even some electrical problems. So we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
He said he will spend “more than $100,000” to prepare the facility for a “grand opening,” which he hopes to schedule for September. The club will remain open during the renovations.
Van Deinse, who recently bought a home in Millstone Landing at the south end of the county, purchased the Timber Ridge club from a group composed of Veronica Cantu, Loyra Coronel and the Mexico-based Lozano & Osorio Tennis Academy, which began operations here in 2012.
The academy’s owners, tennis pros Jorge Lozano and Marco Osorio, spruced up the property and saw the membership climb to more than 200, but that number dwindled when no significant improvements were made to the courts or the lighting.
Van Deinse said the club now has about 120 members, most of whom play in the morning. Night play is rare. Also, Lozano and Osorio have moved their academy to The Boulevard Tennis Club, where they lease courts. “We’re going to focus on the current membership and build from the inside out,” Van Deinse said.
Van Deinse said he began exploring the possibility of buying a tennis club last year, and that his online search turned up only five for sale. Of the five, two were in Florida.
“There was one on the Gulf Coast and this one,” he said. “We came down to see this one in November and loved the fact that it had clay courts. I love clay and always wanted a club like that.
“We also loved the fact that Vero Beach was such a great tennis town,” he added.
Van Deinse said his two sons, Joseph and James, are both U.S. Tennis Association Futures-level players and teaching pros who have earned their MBAs. They will join him at the club this summer.
He said he, too, will be offering lessons.
As for the cost of a yearly membership, Van Deinse said he’s still working on the exact numbers, but he expects them to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,200 for singles and $1,800 for families.
“I was looking for my next project,” Van Deinse said, “and when I found this place, I knew it would be perfect.”
He also knows, however, that the local tennis community has heard such talk before.