'Save Joe Creason' campaign condemns planned $65M tennis, pickleball hub at Louisville park

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Two public meetings are set for this week on a $65 million tennis and pickleball complex planned for Joe Creason Park, a project touted as a "state-of-the-art" facility that would create jobs, tax revenue and visitor spending.

The venture has the backing of Democratic Mayor Craig Greenberg, who signed a letter of intent with developers that could ultimately result in a long-term lease for 25 park acres and a $20 million city investment.

But the idea has upset some neighbors, park users and others who say a public park is the wrong place for the privately-led development, criticize the proposed city spending and question the behind-the-scenes planning for a major overhaul of public land.

"We have concerns about the safety, the congestion, the community access and input as a whole," said Leigh Kolley, who estimates she visits the park and nearby Louisville Nature Center almost every day. "It's a pretty brazen land grab and it's being sold as a gift to the city."

Yard signs asking to "SAVE JOE CREASON" and promoting "NATURE OVER NETS" dot nearby neighborhood streets. Last week, social media posts show, people came to the park to support the campaign against the development.

Two neighborhood meetings are scheduled this week, although they aren't the city-organized meetings that may eventually be required under the formal planning process. The first is Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Cyril Allgeier Community Center, 4101 Cadillac Court. The second is Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at St. Xavier High School, 1609 Poplar Level Road.

Metro Council member Josie Raymond, D-10, who represents the area, said she supports improving public amenities at the 62-acre Joe Creason Park but insists there ought to be "a lot of scrutiny" of the project.

She also has concerns about a possible $20 million municipal bond request, which the council would have to approve. The money wasn't included in Greenberg's recently released spending proposal for the next fiscal year; it's not clear when it might be put forth.

"For the council to support that kind of request, I think we would have to see widespread community support and undeniable economic impact, and there's still questions to be asked and answered on those fronts," Raymond said.

Greenberg said in an interview last week that he's heard some of the concerns about the project, but "I've also heard an outpouring of support."

"Now, at the same time, we want to listen," he said. "This is not a final proposal, and so I'm really excited to hear about constructive feedback about the project to make it even better for the neighborhood and for the entire city."

'World-class project' years in the making

As envisioned, the complex would take in the existing Louisville Tennis Center and much of the area bounded by Illinois Avenue to the east, Sheridan Avenue to the north, Ridgefield Road to the east and Trevilian Way to the south. 

Plans call for 36 tennis courts, 18 pickleball courts, a restaurant and other facilities such as a health club and sports medicine clinic. Two parking lots would have 276 spaces. 

A section of outdoor courts would be built over an existing parking lot on the site. A cemetery, historic pool house and playground wouldn't be affected. 

In a news release announcing the development last month, Greenberg called it a "world-class project."

The venture is being led by Kentucky Tennis & Pickleball Center Inc., a nonprofit entity created in April 2024. Its founding officers include Fred Davis, president and CEO of the PriceWeber advertising agency, and his son Will Davis, the head men's tennis coach of Bellarmine University.

Other members of the "coalition" listed in a news release include prominent Louisville attorney Ed Glasscock, Dr. Mark Lynn, chair of the Kentucky State Fair Board, and RC Scheinler, Kentucky board president of the United States Tennis Association.

The goal, Will Davis said, is to "bring accessibility to racquet sports to everybody in our community."

He said his group pursued Creason Park because of its centralized location and past history as a tennis center. According to Metro Parks, the center was home to the Louisville Open tennis tournament in the 1970s and once had a 5,000-seat arena there.

"This would be the best place for us to be able to serve all community members in the entire city," Will Davis said.

The Davises said in an interview the proposal has been seriously pursued for about three years. They said the $20 million in city bonds would be paid back by revenue from the project, with details laid out in a development agreement negotiated with the city. The remaining $45 million cost would be a mix of private fundraising and state funding, Fred Davis said.

"We have not talked to the state formally about it yet at all because until we have the site control, we think it's a little premature to be talking to the state," he said.

Fred Davis said the developers would like the state to match the city's anticipated $20 million investment. With roughly $1.1 million in state sales tax revenue projected for Kentucky coffers each year, he said, "we don't think it's an unreasonable request that the state come up with a sizable amount of money to help with the project."

Bellarmine role?

Will Davis' involvement has raised questions about the connections between Bellarmine, a nearby private university, and the publicly supported facility.

"This is obviously not a Bellarmine project," Davis said in an interview in late April. "Bellarmine has no part of this project, and that's really as plain and simple as I can say it."

Bellarmine spokesperson Jason Cissell said in a statement the school is "aware" of the proposal.

"The university is not and has not been involved in the funding or development of this facility," he said. "There have been no negotiations between Bellarmine and any of the parties involved with the project."

But documents reviewed by WDRB News list the university as a "partner" in the project in August 2023, with the facility described as the "Home of Bellarmine University's Tennis" in an undated pdf file released in an open records request.

The undated document says the Creason Park project "[f]rees up valuable flat-acreage near the center of Bellarmine's campus for other University usage" and enhances "student-athlete recruitment and overall enrollment at Bellarmine."

A file dated November 2023 no longer mentioned Bellarmine as a partner, although Will Davis, Bellarmine's athletics director, Scott Wiegandt, and its president, Susan Donovan, are listed as "advisors & ambassadors" that are "committed to the success of the project."

The documents, obtained from Metro government by former Kentucky Resources Council director Tom FitzGerald, were posted publicly and also shared with WDRB.

In a statement Monday, the Kentucky Tennis & Pickleball Center Inc. said Bellarmine personnel were told of the project in its early stages, "but Bellarmine has never had any control over the project or participated in funding it in any way.

"As previously stated, KYTPC believes that it would be helpful to the project to have a major college tenant, but no conversations have been had with Bellarmine or any other entity concerning lease terms. If such conversations evolve in the future, they will assuredly be at arm’s length."

'Frustration and cynicism'

FitzGerald, an attorney who lives near Creason Park, has been critical of the Greenberg administration signing a letter of intent in March for the development before neighbors were formally notified of the details.

The project was announced in media reports and a press release in April.

"If you wanted to create a process where you were going to provoke people's frustration and cynicism at feeling like they've been left behind in a process where you're already inking a development agreement draft, this is it, right?" FitzGerald said. "This is not the way that we do community-based planning and community-sensitive development."

One document obtained by FitzGerald appears to be dated May 2023 and says the community engagement strategy has been to keep information about the project "very confidential" until the mayor and his administration were ready to make an announcement. 

The letter of intent says the developers and Metro government will try to sign a development agreement for the project over the next two months. As part of that deal, the Metro Council would have to approve any lease and final plan, along with the proposed city funding.

Council member JP Lyninger, D-6, said in a recent newsletter that he is "broadly opposed to the pattern of taking our public lands for private and for-profit interests."

"Public resources — our parks, the buildings Louisville Metro owns, the ability to tax developments and corporations to fund schools, libraries, and roads—belong to all of us and should be used for the public's interests, not picking winners and losers in the marketplace or benefiting the wealthy and connected," Lyninger said.

Greenberg defended the decision to sign the letter of intent last week. Asked why that was an appropriate way to do city business, he said: "That's why we're doing community engagement now. Because that was the start of the process.

"There was a local nonprofit organization that wants to do this for the community on Creason Park, which has an amazing tennis history," Greenberg said. "That's a great place to do it, and now this process will help us get feedback from the community -- not just 'we hate it' or 'we love it,' but specific, constructive feedback about how we can make this project better for the community and for the country to enjoy and come visit Louisville."

The mayor's office emailed reporters last week to address "misinformation" about the project. It says the proposal isn't a private development because it would be built, maintained and be operated by a nonprofit organization.

(The Kentucky Tennis & Pickleball Center Inc. is not currently part of Metro government or affiliated with it.)

The mayor's office also emphasized that the center would be open to the public, who "will be able to rent courts at the new facility for a small fee, similar to the existing fee structure."

It also says the "vast majority" of the park won't be affected, with the project built on existing parking lots, tennis courts, and a "very small area" of the park around the lots and courts on Trevilian Way.

And the mayor's office says the Creason Park plan isn't the first time the city and an outside group have agreed on a project inside a Metro park, citing a deal with the Louisville City FC soccer team on a training facility at Champions Park off River Road.

Creason Park's most prominent neighbor, the Louisville Zoo, hasn't taken a position on the proposal. 

"We are always open to learning more about efforts intended to increase visitors to our community and ultimately the Louisville Zoo," spokeswoman Kyle Shepherd said in a statement. "We look forward to more information about the project and the opportunity for shared dialogue at upcoming neighborhood meetings."

'The best place for us'

But those arguments aren't easing the concerns of those opposed to the project.

At the Louisville Nature Center next to the park, Executive Director Rebecca Minnick said she remains worried "about what precedent this is setting for our parks, for our green spaces."

"The Nature Center doesn't own the land that we sit on. The city owns it," she said. "Are they at some point going to decide that they want to build something on our forest?"

The developers say their project would help the Nature Center and have a "net environmental improvement" for its neighbors, help control stormwater runoff and replace any trees that are removed. They also say they're committed to "not worsening" light pollution that could disrupt the navigation of migratory birds.

But Margaret Carreiro, a retired University of Louisville biology professor, said she fears the wildlife habitat would be harmed by the noise, light and traffic that undoubtedly would increase nearby. She said 155 bird species have been found in the Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve that abuts Creason Park; 43 of those are migratory birds.

"It's crowding nature out," Carreiro said. "Can't we leave something alone for once? A death by 1,000 cuts is a big deal and ... we're now degrading the quality of that habitat by changing drastically what surrounds it."

If built, a new parking lot also would cut into a running course at Creason Park, said Geoff Glaab, who helps organize the parkrun events Saturday mornings. He argues that there are plenty of other places in Louisville for a new tennis center especially given the city's latest national parkland ranking.

"There's plenty of parking lots that could go in," he said. "There are plenty of parking lots downtown that could go in, right? I mean, it's a suburban development that's being put in the center of the city."

But standing outside the Louisville Tennis Center on a recent morning, Will Davis said the developers are set on the Creason Park site and will work to listen to concerns.

"This park was actually partially created for a tennis center – and so that's one reason," he said. "The other reason is just the fact that this is the geographical center of the city, as well as the center of the population of Louisville, so this would be the best place for us to be able to serve all community members in the entire area."

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