The last 15 years have not been kind to tennis in New York City.

As real estate prices climbed, clubs were more likely to close than to resurface their courts — witness the passing of the East River Tennis Club in Long Island City, the Wall Street Racquet Club, and Crosstown Tennis on W. 31st Street (which was purchased by Con Edison). Tennisport, the Long Island City club preferred by John McEnroe and Jim Courier, has perhaps another two or three years before its clay courts are sacrificed to waterfront development.And Stadium Tennis, whose coldweather bubbles are a few long home runs from Yankee Stadium, will lose seven of its 14 public courts this winter to a new field belonging to the city’s signature franchise; the other seven are soon to follow.

All the more satisfying, then, is the reopening of the Harlem Tennis Center at the armory on 142nd street between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. The new center, where an open house is scheduled for October 14, will see its first full day of play the following day. It’s the best thing to happen to tennis in New York City in more than a decade.

The eight jigsaw-puzzle courts constructed of rubber tiles have been replaced by six hard courts, and two others, built with a rubbery surface, will double as basketball courts. A white, synthetic fabric suspended 45 feet above the courts conceals the center’s 95-foot ceiling, and the dim, flickering lights that once made life dangerous for net rushers have been replaced by bulbs that shine upward and reflect off the ceiling. Three levels of seats — enough to hold about 3,000 people — were traded for “used” (they look brand new) stands from Clemson University. Electronic scoreboards overlook the courts, and a new lounge awaits those who prefer a game of chess — the center’s thirdmost-popular activity, behind playing and watching tennis. A construction crew is building an elevator at the 142nd Street entrance.

But it’s more than just a tennis club: It contains two classrooms and a computer room with two dozen new machines, and a sound-proof broadcast studio in the upper stands, for children who want to learn the finer points of radio and television, is in the offing. The center will have a climbing wall and a ropes course for military personnel, and will eventually host clinics for gymnastics and other sports.

The Pataki and Bloomberg administrations poured a combined $2.4 million into the new center; another $4 million came from a Department of Housing and Urban Development grant and asset forfeitures from drug trafficking convictions.The state’s director of criminal justice, Chauncey Parker, was instrumental in the project’s conception and financing.

While the new center will offer far more programs and services than it did in the past, its executive director, Bobby Dunn of the Police Athletic League, says it will put tennis first (the PAL holds the armory’s lease).

“We promised that to the community,” Dunn said.

For those who played most of their winter tennis in Harlem, the fact that the armory is opening at all is something of a surprise. Built in 1933 to honor the 369th Regiment — the first black regiment to fight in World War I — tennis at the site began in the 1950s. Because of the efforts of numerous promoters and instructors — Bill Brown, retired policeman Claude Cargill, Cecil Watkins, and Zack Davis among them — its leagues and junior programs flourished.

In recent years, however, rumors about the center’s demise began to circulate at the end of each season. The PAL’s remodeling plans did little to abate skepticism; rather, many feared that the refurbished facility would make tennis secondary to basketball. For a while, the PAL thought it might have to scale back plans as construction costs soared.The state and city funds — $1.2 million from each — put the project back on track.

The director of facilities management at the Police Athletic League, Rich Napolitano, oversaw construction beginning in April, and said the armory’s design posed numerous challenges. For one, the lack of a freight elevator made loading and unloading equipment difficult. He said the PAL had planned to restore and paint the original ceiling, but its height drove the cost beyond reach.In order to install the drop ceiling, workers drove mechanical lifts into the building so they could reach the lowest girders. Those lifts had to roll and rest on carefully arranged planks for fear that the armory’s floor would not support them.

Jerome Dunbar, who works closely with Dunn, said the center is discussing events that could include John McEnroe or Andre Agassi, who retired from tennis after this year’s U.S.Open (James Blake, who played at the center as a child, has made numerous visits over the years). Some exhibition matches, he said, might feature a “center court” with temporary stands to give people a closer look at the action.

Dunn has hired George Henry as director of tennis. Henry helped train Venus and Serena Williams after the sisters began spending more time in Florida than their native California.Together, they still have details to iron out, not least of which is the price of court time. Right now, they are considering selling off-peak hours for $40, and peak hours for $50. While other courts in the city cost far more, Dunn is mindful that the center has always been more of a community than a tennis club.

“We want to maintain a lot of the tradition that was here,” he said.

tperrotta@nysun.com