Cincinnati Tennis Foundation Breaks Ground on $10 Million First Serve Tennis and Education Center in Norwood

The Cincinnati Tennis Foundation, in partnership with Neyer Properties, today broke ground on the First Serve Tennis and Education Center, a $10 million year-round campus in Norwood made possible by a transformative partnership with First Serve Community Fund, the center’s cornerstone naming rights partner.

First Serve Community Fund has committed to the project, the largest cornerstone investment in the Cincinnati Tennis Foundation’s Rally for Dreams campaign. The gift secures naming rights for the new facility and establishes First Serve Community Fund as the lead philanthropic partner in creating a permanent home where young people and adaptive athletes can access tennis, education, mentorship and life-skills programming throughout the year.

Development and construction are being led by Neyer Properties in conjunction with Elevar Design Group, Evans Engineering, Site Solutions Consulting, and CORE Resources. Construction on the facility is expected to be completed in fall 2027. To learn more or support the Rally for Dreams campaign, visit www.cincinnatitennisfoundation.org.

“This project represents what can happen when organizations share a belief that every young person deserves access to opportunity,” said Matthew Dektas, CEO of the Cincinnati Tennis Foundation. “First Serve Community Fund stepped forward with an extraordinary commitment and a shared vision for what this center can mean for generations of young people. Their leadership gave this vision tremendous momentum, and we are proud that the First Serve name will welcome every child and family who walks through these doors.”

“Our investment in the First Serve Tennis and Education Center is about much more than putting a name on a building,” said John Keating, Board Member of First Serve Community Fund. “It is an investment in young people and in creating a place where access to sports, education, mentorship and opportunity come together. We are proud to partner with the Cincinnati Tennis Foundation to make this vision a reality.”

The center addresses a widening opportunity gap. In this market, 75.1 percent of youth in households earning less than $25,000 are not participating in organized sports, and children from higher-income families are now more than 20 percentage points more likely to play a sport than children from lower-income households. The First Serve Tennis and Education Center is designed to remove cost, transportation and ability as barriers to participation.

The new facility will feature indoor tennis and pickleball courts, classrooms, a community hub, locker rooms and fully accessible facilities. Once open, it will add 800 after-school program hours each year, deliver academic support, mentoring, nutrition and life-skills programming to 50 or more youth daily, and double the number of youth and individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities the Cincinnati Tennis Foundation serves annually.

“Neyer Properties is honored to be a part of bringing the Cincinnati Tennis Foundation’s vision to life. We are proud to help build something that will serve our community for generations to come and can’t imagine a better use for this site,” said Jeff Chamot, Director of Development.

The Cincinnati Tennis Foundation served 4,715 athletes in 2025 across more than 30 community sites. Its Cincy Scholars program enrolled 382 students who posted a 17 percent increase in reading comprehension over seven summer weeks, measured against average national summer learning losses of 20 to 30 percent. Eighty-eight percent of players gained in two or more foundational social-emotional areas, and 75 percent reported gaining a new adult in their life they can trust.

The Foundation also served 122 wheelchair and adaptive athletes, whose teams finished number two in the United States in wheelchair tennis and number one in ParaStanding tennis, and sent 10 seniors on to collegiate tennis.

“Every number in our program report starts with a kid who walked onto a court for the first time and decided to stay,” Dektas said. “This building is how we keep them. It gives our players a year-round home, a classroom, a meal and a mentor, and it gives this region a permanent place where opportunity is the whole point.”

Rendering provided.