Oct. 28—The First Serve New Mexico board had to make a quick change when a rainstorm swept through New Mexico earlier this month, jeopardizing an annual fundraiser that also served as a presentation of its new Forked Lightning Racquet Club complex.
The board was able to move the event to the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, where they set up a net indoors for professional players and First Serve students to play tennis and pickleball. Before the move, players and students had planned to play on the facility’s mostly completed outdoor fields near the Santa Fe Rodeo Grounds.
Despite rain and a quick change of plans, board member Staci Stevens said the event ended up being a “record fundraiser” for the nonprofit, co-founded by the couple married Richard and Eleanor Brenner in 2003 to support the underserved Santa Claus. Fe youth with free academic tutoring and tennis programs.
Serving students in Santa Fe schools, public courts and school gymnasiums, Eleanor Brenner always dreamed of creating a complex that the organization and its students could call home. A chance meeting between a First Serve head coach and Kimberly Sheffield in 2018 kicked off this dream with an initial $5,000 donation from Sheffield.
Kimberly and Scott Sheffield, part-time Santa Fe residents and Texas oil tycoons, added fuel to the dream after connecting with Eleanor Brenner and agreeing to fully fund the project after the coronavirus pandemic delayed First Serve’s fundraising efforts.
The cost of the project, initially estimated at $6 million, grew over the past few years to $12 million, then $13 million and finally about $20 million, the board chair said. by First Serve, Angelique Lowry. Lowry said the Sheffields are funding 98 percent of the project, while the United States Tennis Association covers the remaining 2 percent.
Just as the cost has changed, so has the schedule. Construction began in September 2022 and completion was planned for the first half of 2024. Permitting hurdles pushed the project further than initially planned.
“It was an arduous permitting process,” said general manager TJ Middleton. “I think the property was in the county, but we needed the city and the county, so we had to jump through all the hoops for both, and it probably took a year longer than we expected. “
Project manager Joel Krypel agreed.
“The administrative part was incredibly painful because the bureaucratic part of things never goes smoothly,” Krypel said. “So once we got over all that, it accelerated very quickly.”
JM Evans Construction had a busy spring and summer, finishing most of the facility’s exterior grounds. When completed, the complex will include six indoor and six outdoor tennis courts, two indoor and seven outdoor pickleball courts, and three outdoor padel courts. These padel courts will be the first in New Mexico.
Padel, a racket sport that combines tennis and squash, could be the next pickleball: there were more than 25 million active padel players in more than 110 countries as of December 2023, according to the International Padel Federation. According to Middleton and Krypel, the padel courts, installed by a Spanish company, are similar in size to pickleball courts but are surrounded by walls about 13 feet high and made of tempered glass. The surface is artificial grass instead of hard rubber.
Middleton, a former professional tennis player and Wimbledon champion, described the sport as “a little more difficult but…a really cool game” to now play in Santa Fe.
Lowry said future tournaments and growing the tennis and racquet sports community in Santa Fe are part of First Serve’s vision for the complex, just as it will be for First Serve students and members of the community who join the private club.
According to Lowry, the club will have the capacity to accept approximately 400 members. Currently, the plan calls for the first 200 members to pay an initial fee of $1,500 and the last 200 members to pay $2,000. After the initial fee, family and individual subscriptions will be available at $180 per month. A portion of the fee will be donated to First Serve as a tax-deductible donation to support its work serving 100 to 200 students annually across 23 schools.
Students will be able to use the courts from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with members able to access the courts during the remaining opening hours. When not in the field, students can access tutoring as well as lectures and planned activities in classrooms equipped with smart boards, tables and more. The campus will also include an administration building and facilities with locker rooms, restrooms and a training center.
The interior framing of the school building is complete and Krypel said he hopes to have the roof on in about a month.
“We’re going to continue until the weather gets bad. But otherwise, I expect steady progress this winter more than last year because we’ll have enclosed spaces to work in,” Krypel said.
The hope is to complete the project in time for a June 1 grand opening, but mid- to late June might be more realistic when factoring in possible inspection delays, said Krypel, who plans to retiring after finishing what he said is not just a job, but his “legacy project”.
“I’ve built $5 million worth of residential homes since I’ve been here 30 years,” Krypel said. “Everything I’ve done so far is just so that very wealthy people have a place. It’s going to be for the community, and that’s pretty rewarding.”
For Lowry, the Sheffields and the First Serve community, the project is also a fully realized dream. Although the Dreamer didn’t get a chance to see it before she died of cancer at age 89 last year, Lowry said the classrooms will have the touch of Eleanor Brenner, displaying artwork she designed and furniture she chose.
Lowry, a close friend of Brenner’s, joked that Brenner once told him, “Don’t give him my name,” in reference to the resort.
To which Lowry replied, “Well, I’m going to name something after you,” adding that it could be something as small as a bench.
A moment passed, Lowry said, before Brenner relented and said, “OK.”
