Riverside Clay Tennis Association
Riverside Park, a five-acre area on Manhattan’s west side featuring the historic public clay tennis courts at 95th Street, had a severe lack of appropriate infrastructure and public amenities (e.g., restrooms).
In response, the Riverside Clay Tennis Association (“RCTA”), who operates the area, formulated a design plan: Construct the City’s first public building that would meet the Living Building Challenge. This would provide much-needed community programming space for the public red clay tennis courts, transform the dilapidated southern parking lot into a native wildflower meadow, and provide a scenic rest area with benches, bike racks and Riverside Park’s only elevated river views west of the West Side Highway for runners, bikers and visitors along the Hudson Greenway. The cost of the project is estimated at $4.4 million; significant public funding was desired by RCTA.
Capalino identified the City’s Capital Budget as a prime source of funding for the community-transforming project. We created targeted presentation materials and advocated on behalf of our client with relevant city officials and stakeholders. Despite the difficult economic challenges, RCTA secured $1.2 million in capital funds from the City for this project.
This significant investment in the project helped launch a major private capital campaign and provided the funding necessary to complete all architectural drawings and pre-construction work.
