In 1973, the Bath + Racquet Club in Sarasota hosted the first Virginia Slims of Sarasota, drawing Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova to its courts and writing the club into tennis history. For generations of Sarasotans it was simply part of the town’s social fabric, a place for swimmers, tennis devotees and long lunches. Now the address is being rebuilt as Bath + Racquet Residences & Club, a 600,000-square-foot mixed-use redevelopment whose newly unveiled Private Members Club attempts something unfashionable: folding an elite racquet club directly into a residential community instead of bolting one onto it.
Developer Silver Sky Global Capital is building 256 luxury condominiums with hurricane-proof construction, more than 20 floor plans and penthouse residences, minutes from downtown and Siesta Key’s beaches. Select homes overlook the courts and the members’ pool, and one heirloom survives the rebuild untouched: a mature tree from the original property still stands on the grounds. “Today’s buyers are looking for more than just a residence. They’re seeking experiences, connection and a lifestyle rooted in well-being and community,” said Fabio Di Prima, president of Silver Sky Global Capital.
The club’s public face is a familiar one. Tommy Haas, a former world No. 2 who won 15 singles titles, an Olympic silver medal and four trips to Grand Slam semifinals across a two-decade career, serves as Global Ambassador. Haas went from the tour to the tournament director’s chair at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, and in Sarasota he is curating club programming around longevity, recovery, performance, balance and community. “After spending most of my life in elite performance environments around the world, I wanted to help create a place where people feel energized, inspired and genuinely connected every day,” said Haas. He is joined by Donna Hunter-Smith, chief revenue and experience officer, arriving from Heritage Golf Group, and strategic adviser Tracy Dolgin, former president of Fox Sports Net and former president and CEO of YES Network.
The operation is organized under three pillars, Play, Restore and Connect, across roughly 45,000 square feet of air-conditioned indoor amenity space and more than 3.3 acres outdoors. The racquet inventory is serious: 12 tennis courts, counting seven outdoor Tru-Har green clay courts, three outdoor red clay courts and one court each indoors and out on hard surface, plus eight pickleball courts and two padel courts, playable year round. Restoration gets equal square footage in spirit: an oversized heated outdoor pool, a full-service spa, sauna and cold-plunge recovery facilities, and a performance gym with advanced strength and cardio equipment. Around those anchors sit elevated dining, social lounges, a children’s playground and a dog park, a deliberate bid to make the membership multigenerational. The clubhouse is designed as the community’s living room rather than its locker room, with dining and gathering spaces positioned to keep non-playing members, spouses, children and grandparents inside the daily life of the club instead of waiting at its edges, a lesson the developers drew from how the original club actually functioned at its mid-century peak.
Access is structured to keep it that way. The Resident Elite Membership belongs exclusively to homeowners, while a limited Founders Circle Membership opens a small number of places to nonresidents, with private programming and social experiences attached. A waitlist is already forming ahead of the club’s anticipated debut alongside the first residential move-ins, expected around December 2026.
Half a century after Evert and Navratilova played its courts, the Bath + Racquet name is being asked to carry a residential development, a wellness business and a social club at once. The bet, shared by a developer and a former world No. 2, is that in Sarasota those were always the same thing. Membership information is at club.bathracquet.com.
