On August 2, the Mubadala DC Open finished a week of ATP 500 tennis at FitzGerald Tennis Center, with qualifying on July 25 and 26 and the main draw from July 27 through August 2. Sixteen days later, the courts around that stadium were locked. The 30-court Rock Creek Tennis Center at 4850 Colorado Ave. NW closed on Tuesday, August 18, after Guest Services Inc.'s contract with the National Park Service ran out, Capital City Post reported. No reopening date was given.
Two months later, most people have heard the explanation that the facility is old and repairs cost money. That explanation leaves out what is actually holding things up. The money already exists. The D.C. Council has set aside $9.6 million to fix the center. The thing holding up a reopening is the right to run the place. The land belongs to the federal government, and the Park Service has not signed a lease with anyone.
What closed on August 18
Neighbors know this as more than a tournament venue. The center has 15 hard courts and 10 clay courts, plus five heated indoor courts that are available in winter. The Washington Tennis and Education Foundation, which runs free tennis and academic programs for D.C. youth, had extended its partnership with Guest Services through April 2026.
Guest Services put a farewell note to members on rockcreektennis.com. It says the company is no longer the operator and does not know when a new operator will take over or when the center will reopen. It adds that information about court reservations, lessons and programs "will be provided by the National Park Service or the new operator." The Park Service's Rock Creek Park alerts page still lists the center as an ongoing item. Its notice says activities "are currently paused as negotiations for a new lease continue."
So the outgoing operator says the Park Service or a successor will announce the reopening, and the Park Service says it is still negotiating that successor's lease.
Three parties, three separate decisions
Three parties each control one piece of the reopening, and only one piece has been decided.
| Piece | Who controls it | Status as of late October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| The land and the lease | National Park Service | No lease announced; alerts page says negotiations continue |
| Repair money | D.C. Council, administered by DMPED | $9.6 million budgeted; project "in the planning phase" as of October 1 |
| Courts, lessons, reservations | Whoever holds the lease | No operator named since Guest Services left |
The money is the only piece that has been settled. The Council approved $9 million in 2025 and added $600,000 in the latest budget. On October 1, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development posted an update saying the improvements were "in the planning phase." It also said DMPED held a kickoff meeting on September 23 "with the proposed grantee to inform them of DMPED grant requirements." The update does not name that grantee.
How the lease stalled
The lease process has already moved past more than one deadline. At first the District tried to take over the site from the Park Service and rehabilitate it, WAMU reported in June 2025. When those talks fell apart, the Park Service went looking for a private operator to lease the land to. It issued a request for proposals in December 2025, set bids due January 20, and aimed to have a lease signed by March 1, WAMU reported.
March 1 came and went. In a July 6 story, WAMU said there was still no resolution. It described businessman Mark Ein, who leads the group that runs the Mubadala DC Open, as "the clear contender." That makes him the likely operator. No lease has been awarded to him.
There was disagreement inside the Park Service as well. On June 1, The Washington Post reported that agency officials had raised legal and environmental concerns about the proposed lease. They objected to lease boundaries that "stretched well beyond the Rock Creek Tennis Center" and warned about possible effects on endangered-species habitat and on federal rules that keep parkland open to the public. The records came from a public-records request by the National Parks Conservation Association. The group's Mid-Atlantic senior director, Ed Stierli, told the Post the Park Service should complete environmental reviews and keep the process competitive.
The boundary question matters because the site is large. WAMU describes it as 39 acres along the eastern edge of Rock Creek Park on 16th Street NW. Ein has also pitched a broader "sportsplex," a community center and other athletic facilities, according to WAMU. Those plans are proposals and have not been approved.
The money is limited to tournament standards
Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, whose ward includes the neighborhoods around the center, objected to approving the money before anyone knew who would manage the site. She told WAMU:
"We can't just be allocating District dollars without real specificity around what those dollars are going to, especially when it's not our land. It's been a total black box, without a lot of transparency."
The Council wrote limits into the spending. According to Capital City Post, the Budget Support Act passed on July 10 requires District-funded work at the site to focus only on bringing the facility up to tournament standards. It also requires regular updates to the Council on how the money is spent and how construction affects neighbors. DMPED's October update describes the project the same way, as improvements to meet ATP and WTA tour standards.
For a weekend player in Sixteenth Street Heights, that means the $9.6 million will pay for courts that meet tournament standards. It does not pay anyone to open the gates on a Tuesday evening in November. Reopening for the public depends on an operator, and naming an operator depends on the lease.
Winter is when this matters most
Late fall is when the five heated indoor courts usually become the center's main draw for everyday players. Nothing published since the closure says whether they will open for the 2026–27 season. The Park Service, the outgoing operator and DMPED have all been silent on it.
For now, Capital City Post points players to the WTEF West Campus at 5220 16th St. NW and to D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation facilities. On the DPR tennis page, the department lists classes at outdoor courts across the city and year-round indoor classes at the Southeast Tennis & Learning Center, 701 Mississippi Ave. SE. These are places players can use. No source says Rock Creek's leagues or programs have officially moved to any of them.
The Park Service is the agency to ask about the center's future, and its Rock Creek Park alerts page is where the "paused" notice will change first.
The golf course next door shows what comes after a lease
Rock Creek Park Golf, a little to the south along the same edge of the park, shows that a settled lease deal still leaves work to do. National Links Trust says the Interior Department announced an agreement on May 8, 2026 giving the nonprofit a new long-term lease at Rock Creek Park Golf and Langston Golf Course. NLT said the deal clears the way to restart construction of a new clubhouse, driving range, practice facilities and maintenance facility. It also plans to restore nine holes of the historic William Flynn-designed course and add a nine-hole par-3 course, a Himalayas putting green, a restaurant, pollinator meadows and an ecological trail network.
More than five months after that announcement, NLT's project page still says the work is "temporarily paused, but will be resuming soon in partnership with the National Park Service." No restart date has been posted.
The golf course does have something on the calendar this week. National Links Trust is hosting Halloween with NLT at Rock Creek Park Golf on Saturday, October 31, from 1 to 3 p.m. The free event includes pumpkin painting, face painting and a costume contest, with free parking on site. Registration is required. If you are making plans for a later weekend in the park, check where things are held first. The Rock Creek Park Nature Center and Planetarium building is also closed until further notice for remediation, and the Park Service posts program locations on its calendar.
Large public facilities along 16th Street's park edge come back on the federal timeline, after a lease is settled and construction is scheduled. The tennis center has its money in place and is still waiting on the lease. At Cox & Cox Group, we follow projects like this one because they shape everyday life in Sixteenth Street Heights. If you have questions about how changes along the park edge could affect your home's value, contact us. Let's solve your home needs.
