Newport’s Palisades Tennis Club gets a reprieve with new 10-year lease

The Palisades Tennis Club has gotten another reprieve, this time for the long term.

The Newport Beach tennis institution, which operates under two separate ground leases, was in the process of moving out of its longtime headquarters on Jamboree Road when a landlord who at first was not going to extend one of the leases signed the club last week to a new 10-year agreement, Palisades officials said.

“Palisades Tennis Club has been a good, long-term operator and I’m glad we were able to work out a new 10-year lease,” Russ Fluter of Newport’s Fluter Properties said in a statement.

Palisades, at 1171 Jamboree, occupies a piece of land on the northeast corner of the Hyatt Regency resort and a parcel immediately adjacent that is owned by Fluter.

The Fluter property contains the Palisades clubhouse and nine of its 15 courts. The club was preparing to continue with its front six courts and parking lot on the Hyatt Regency parcel.

“Our future as a club is now secured and we have significant plans for the long-term health and future of Palisades Tennis Club,” owner Eric Davidson said in a statement. “We plan on making some improvements and refurbishments to our clubhouse facility.

“This is truly the best thing for the overall community, including our members and staff, and we are very pleased to maintain our current footprint and to continue to offer our world-class services and facility to the local community and global visitors.”

A similar situation played out in August when Palisades — which opened in 1974 as the John Wayne Tennis Club — approached the expiration of its original 45-year lease. Club members staged a successful six-month appeal.

As the non-renewal scenario started to repeat this year, Fluter again changed his mind, this time with a firmer commitment to the club.

The lease extension also means the Orange County Breakers professional tennis team will stay at Palisades for its three-week summer season to tune up for the U.S. Open. Davidson also owns the Breakers and co-owns World TeamTennis, the nine-team league the Breakers play in.

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