The Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday gave the first approval for a multimillion-dollar expansion of XS Tennis Village in Washington Park.
The XS Tennis and Education Foundation, the nation’s largest minority-owned tennis organization, is proposing apartments that include affordable units and a 125-room hotel. But some neighbors expressed concerns over how it might disrupt the neighborhood.
XS Tennis Village opened in 2018 on land that once housed the Chicago Housing Authority’s Robert Taylor Homes. The tennis facility, at 5256-5338 S. State St., offers programs and rentals for its 27 tennis courts.
The tennis village has spurred investment along State Street and Garfield Boulevard in the Washington Park neighborhood. President and CEO Kamau Murray told commissioners Thursday he wants to further the investment with his $41 million project, which would be across from the tennis village at 5301 S. State St.
Murray acquired the vacant land through a private sale, he told commissioners. Property records show it sold for $512,000 in March 2024 to a limited liability company controlled by Murray.
The land has been vacant for about 30 years, according to 3rd Ward Ald. Pat Dowell.
“One of the things I think this neighborhood needs is an operator that is [in]vested in it,” Murray said. “When I turn around in my chair, I look at the hotel. I’m very vested in what the … place looks like, who’s coming in and out and who we’re allowing to be there.”
Murray said the mixed-use development would complement the success of XS Tennis Village.
He said he envisions Chicago hosting tennis tournaments that open the door for young players to notch national ranking points — a key component in increasing player visibility and college scholarship offers — with the proposed hotel playing a helping hand.
Murray said Black tennis players historically haven’t been able to fly to states where national-level tournaments take place. Having a hotel across from XS Tennis Village could open the door to Chicago hosting national tournaments “every single weekend.”
“This hotel is consistent with our mission and integral to our mission of putting more Black people in tennis at the highest level,” Murray said.
XS Tennis signed a franchise agreement with Hyatt for the hotel, which would open by December 2027 if the project is approved. The hotel would be an estimated $25 million investment and include ground-floor retail space that Murray said he hopes to fill with a Black-owned business.
The development team was conscientious about the project’s scale and design, Murray said. The hotel will be six stories, and the residential building will be five stories. Each building would have light gray brick with terra-cotta-colored accents matching the design of buildings north of XS Tennis Village.
Murray said the team decided on two separate buildings to avoid a “long stretch of solid structure” on State Street.
The residential building would include 51 apartments, with 50 of them affordable. It would have one- and two-bedroom units, including a second-floor roof deck and amenity room. There would also be ground-floor retail, according to Murray.
The bulk of the units would be affordable at 60% of the area median income.
“We believe we have a real good commitment to the community by providing deep affordability,” Murray said.
Several neighbors living on Wabash Avenue, which abuts the development site, expressed concern about the impact the construction would have on their neighborhood and the hotel’s proximity to the Beasley Academic Center. Others said they felt there was a lack of community outreach.
“We have been stepped on and ignored as a community,” said resident Cecilia Butler, president of the Washington Park Residents Advisory Council. Butler said the XS Tennis Village expansion is the latest in a string of developments neighbors have been opposed to.
But Washington Park is growing, Dowell said, in part because of investments like XS Tennis. She also pointed to two other hotels in the ward that are near schools. Neither has had safety issues, Dowell said.
“Washington Park is growing, and I think that some of that is because of the investments that have been made along State Street and along Garfield,” Dowell said. “We need to keep that momentum going.”
The Plan Commission also approved Loyola University Chicago’s plans for a new nursing, forensic sciences, biochemistry and chemistry building that would include classrooms and research labs.
The six-story building would replace Campion Hall — the university’s oldest dormitory — and serve as the gateway to the university on its northern end. Demolition of Campion Hall, at 6551 N. Sheridan Road, is supposed to start soon.
Loyola wants to open the new sciences building in time for the 2028-2029 academic year, representatives said Thursday.
