The eight tennis courts at Flaherty Park in Wake Forest have gone quiet, fenced off behind construction barriers as crews tear into a $1.4 million rebuild of the town's busiest racket-sports hub. The Wake Forest Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources Department shut the courts down to the public for the duration of the project, and officials are warning residents to stay clear while heavy equipment and work crews move through the site.
According to WRAL, the renovation will strip out the courts' existing asphalt surface entirely and replace it, along with new nets, fencing, fence posts, suspension devices, benches, water fountains, and restroom facilities. The project will also build an accessible sidewalk connecting the tennis courts to the Flaherty Park Community Center. Town officials reminded residents that the area is an active construction site and asked people to follow posted signs and stay out of the construction zone, per the station's report.
The closure began Monday, August 24, ahead of the major construction and court replacement, according to the Town of Wake Forest. Beyond the surface swap, the town's project scope calls for courtside electrical outlets on select courts, pickleball line markings added to select tennis courts, new maintenance gates, and storage space built into the new restroom facility, the town says.
Grant Application Aims to Offset Project Costs
To help cover the $1.4 million estimated price tag, Wake Forest applied for a $200,000 grant from the United States Tennis Association, according to the town's capital project tracking page. Local municipal funds are covering the rest, and the project follows a string of recent investments at the same courts. In April 2024, contractor Walter Holmes Electric completed a $178,511 LED lighting overhaul at the courts, swapping out older metal halide fixtures for modern LED lights, the town's project completion announcement states.
The tennis court work also traces back to a broader town-wide funding source: Wake Forest's 2022 Parks and Recreation General Obligation Bond referendum, which voters approved by a 70% margin to authorize $24.4 million in recreational capital projects across town, according to municipal election records.
Pickleball Courts Getting Their Own Facelift
The tennis rebuild isn't the only court project underway at Flaherty Park. The town has separately contracted North State Surfacing for $26,124 to clean, repair cracks, and resurface all four of the park's dedicated outdoor pickleball courts, with that work set to begin September 21, according to a municipal maintenance notice. Pickleball has deep roots at the park — the sport first took hold there in 2009 on a single chalked tennis court, and it has since grown to 18 active shared and dedicated courts across town by 2026, per town historical reporting.
Flaherty Park itself spans 100 acres at 1226 N. White St. and includes eight tennis courts, four dedicated pickleball courts, five ballfields, three soccer fields, a dog park, and a community center, according to the town's official facility inventory. Public tennis lessons, youth clinics, and adult leagues normally run at the courts through a partnership between the town's recreation department and the Wake Forest Area Tennis Association, a local volunteer non-profit, per the town's athletics portal.
Multiple Facilities Offline at Once
The tennis court shutdown closely followed an August 5 temporary closure of the adjacent Flaherty Park Community Center gymnasium for internal facility maintenance, according to a town public service notice, meaning residents have faced overlapping construction and maintenance schedules at the park in recent weeks. The community center itself remained active enough to host Wake Forest Comic-Con's 1,000-plus attendees in late August, an event that saw overflow parking spill into spaces near the park's courts.
WRAL's Noah Willard, who works as a news producer for the station, reported the closure details as construction got underway. For now, both the tennis courts and the pickleball courts at Flaherty Park remain works in progress, with town officials continuing to direct residents away from the fenced-off construction zones until the rebuild is complete.
