New Queens NYC Squash at Cityview Racquet Club

A landmark addition to the New York squash scene made an impressive debut in the early afternoon of March 18th when the CityView Racquet Club, the first metropolitan-area commercial squash club with a doubles court in the 24 years since the Manhattan Squash Club on West 42nd Street, site of the 1979 North American Open, ended its eight-year run back in 1984, had an impressive and well-attended ribbon-cutting ceremony and officially opened for business.

The Reverend Mitchell G. Taylor, founder and president of the East River Development Alliance, performed the actual ribbon-cutting honors, surrounded by CityView managing partner Michael DelPrete and co-owners Anthony Gaudio, Joe Shabot and Eli Dweck, and the energetic buzz permeating the atmosphere fully expressed a befitting degree of optimism and excitement signified by the occasion.

The club, located in the Penthouse at 43-34 32nd Place in the Long Island City section of Queens (five local stops from Grand Central Station on the No. 7 MTA subway line to the 33rd Street stop two blocks from the club, whose cross-streets are between Skillman Avenue and Queens Boulevard, zip code 11101), features three international squash singles courts and one hardball doubles court (all of which have glass back walls and provide excellent spectator viewing both at court level and from the restaurant-bar area up above), along with seven Har-Tru clay tennis courts, a pro shop and fitness area and a full spa with four treatment rooms All told, it is an 80,000-square-foot facility built atop the roof of the former “Swingline Stapler” building, an iconic structure that served for decades as a tank manufacturing building when it was originally built in the 1930’s. Its placement just across the 59th Street Bridge and the Queens Midtown Tunnel affords, as its name implies, a spectacular view through the spacious lounge and its panoramic windows of the Manhattan skyline right across the East River separating Manhattan and Queens.

The latter borough has never before had a squash facility, nor have there ever been any New York squash doubles courts other than in Manhattan, the one exception having been the venerable Heights Casino Club in Brooklyn Heights. CityView intends to be a prominent player in the local and national squash picture, hosting its first singles tournament end of this month and possibly serving as one of the venues for the fourth annual U. S. Father & Son championship when that event occurs in mid-April.

The squash program at CityView is headed by Mike Weston, a New Zealand native and former PSA-ranked competitive player himself (and a top-six finisher in the 2005 World Masters Games), who served as manager of the 1995 New Zealand Junior (i.e. Under-23) squad whose roster included future ISDA doubles star (and winner with partner Clive Leach of the 2003 Canadian Pro, Creek Challenge Cup and Kellner Cup Doubles championships) Blair Horler. Weston also was the New Caledonia national team coach and held several executive positions as well in the New Zealand squash federation, and his ambitious plans for the CityView squash program include private and group instruction, stroke production training, high performance junior coaching (several schools are already considering having their varsities practice there) and US Squash and ISDA ranking tournaments. CityView’s web site is www.cityviewracquet.com and the phone number is 718-698-3664.

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