Delray Tennis Championships to expand in 2011

By David Sedore, Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — The weather last month for the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships was about as bad one can imagine — plagued by rain and bitterly cold temperatures — but from every other standpoint, the tournament itself was still an overwhelming success.

So much so that tournament director Mark Baron told Delray Beach city commissioners that the event will be expanded next year to 10 days, and will have 18 sessions, one more than this year’s format.

This year, the event was actually two tournaments, the ATP Champions Tour (won by Patrick Rafter over John McEnroe) and the ATP World Tour.  And Tennis on the Avenue, a last-minute addition to the festivities this year, will be heavily featured next year.

“It was a major success,” Baron said of Tennis on the Avenue, which featured McEnroe and Mats Wilander in an exhibition played on Atlantic. “We figured maybe 100 people would show up; estimates are 2,000 showed.”

The event also boosted downtown merchants across the spectrum, not just restaurants.

Next year, Tennis on the Avenue will be marketed for three months, and will begin earlier — 4 or 4:30 p.m. instead of 6 — to encourage tennis fans to spend more time — and money — downtown. Anyone who buys something at a downtown restaurant and shop will be entitled to a discount on tournament tickets.

“We think we’re going to create a complete sellout in every restaurant,” Baron said.

In other business, commissioners:

— Approved by a 5-0 vote a request from Chase Bank to build a 4,214-square-foot branch between NE 5th and 6th avenues along George Bush Boulevard. The move approves the site as suitable for the bank branch but the proposal still needs additional to undergo additional reviews before construction can begin. A spokesman for the project said Chase hopes to have the branch open later this year.

— Approved a waiver from minimum floor height requirements for the Atlantic Ocean Club, which is to be situated on Atlantic Avenue just northwest of the FEC railroad. City regulations require a minimum height of 10 feet; the ground floor of the building is now slightly more than 14, but club owners want the waiver so a seven-foot high mezzanine can be built over parts of space.

— Agreed to buy two foreclosed homes along Lancewood Place under the neighborhood stabilization program for use as affordable housing. One home, at 3740 Lancewood, is owned by Wells Fargo and will be bought at a cost of $135,000. The second, at 1135 E. Lancewood, is owned by Department of Housing and Urban Development and will be bought for $170,000.

The city planned to buy two others but private investors scooped them up before commissioners could act. The deals are to be financed with grants; proceeds from the sale of the homes will be used to create a revolving fund to buy other homes.

— Approved the results of the March 9 city elections. Incumbent Fred Fetzner won a third term on the commission, defeating local attorney Darin Mellinger 2,017 to 672. Angeleta Gray, appointed last summer to the seat formerly occupied by Mackenson Bernard, won her election unopposed. Both will serve two-year terms.

 

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MARCH 17, 2010 click to go home
 
     
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