Today we’d like to introduce you to Nazar Bilukha.
Hi Nazar, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Ukraine but am a local Atlantan since moving to the city as a child in 3rd grade. I grew up in the Northeast Atlanta area right by Spaghetti Junction and went to Chamblee High School.
As a child I played a lot of tennis and eventually played college tennis at Emory (while getting a BBA degree there studying finance). Much of my childhood free time outside of school was spent playing tennis, specifically at the facility located at 3110 Presidential Dr.
That facility used to be called International Tennis Academy (ITA) and had 14 tennis courts (2 clay, 12 hard – all outdoor). When we moved to Atlanta as immigrants from Ukraine in 2000 without much money, tennis was more of a recreational activity for my family. While my family couldn’t afford to pay to send me to the tennis program full-time, the owner of the facility at the time Dan Cassidy offered a “scholarship” to me where in exchange for helping out around the facility a bit he would let me participate in the programming. The junior academy program there was extremely strong with wonderful coaches and a strong track record of developing high-level talent and sending kids to college on tennis scholarships.
That experience working at ITA during that period was life-changing for me, as the facility became my second home. I would help out with the front desk, running tournaments, facility maintenance, stringing rackets, etc – getting a chance to learn how businesses run from a relatively early age. It helped not only shape my athletic interests but also my career interests in business and finance. I also credit the sport of tennis in general with teaching incredibly valuable life lessons – resilience, problem solving, independence, importance of physical health, etc.
The ITA business / facility itself went through some difficult cycles, one where the business struggled to survive through the financial crisis in 2008, and then a following cycle of ownership where the facility was severely under-invested in and deteriorated over time.
During the period after college in the 2010s, I was living in New York, but every time I would visit my family in Atlanta I would prioritize checking in on the facility to see how it was doing, and it was sad to see the state of it deteriorate over time. It was always a dream to have an opportunity to potentially own it one day and bring it back to the “glory days” of when it was the home to a great junior development program and a bunch of other really quality tennis programming.
Right before COVID, the opportunity presented itself to purchase the property, and we jumped on it. I partnered with a good friend of mine Peter Bau from growing up (we went to school together since 4th grade and also played on the Chamblee High School tennis team together) – he had strong experience in real estate and construction from his time in real estate private equity roles, and I had experience in managing businesses and a background in racket sports from my days growing up. Also importantly we had a lot of conviction in the location as it was right around the corner from where we grew up and we loved the convenience of the location from all across the metro Atlanta area.
The original idea was to rebuild it as a tennis facility, but during all the COVID and permitting-driven delays, our idea evolved to include meaningful pickleball and padel offerings as well.
After a long re-construction process that was complicated by the COVID pandemic, we finally finished construction in late 2023 and opened to the public. We operate under the name ITP Training Academy and are now the home to a great junior tennis development program, all sorts of lessons / clinics / team offerings for tennis, a destination for some of the largest pickleball leagues and tournaments in the city, and the first public facility to offer padel in the state of Georgia (padel is a sport you’ll start hearing a lot more about in the coming years).
Now, a year and a half after opening our core business of racket sports programming, we are excited to begin offering food and beverage options to our customers as of April 2025 and continue growing our business by offering quality programming and customer service and continuing to expand and grow our offerings such as kids beginner programming and camps to become a trusted home for the community as the facility used to be for me when I was growing up.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Permitting / construction always a challenge (we had to deal with all sorts of delays and price increases associated with COVID and supply chain issues, etc)
Starting a business with 0 customers / revenue after making a large investment has it’s obvious stresses / difficulties
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
ITP Training Academy is a newly-built, full-service tennis, pickleball, and padel facility conveniently located in Metro Atlanta.
Our newly-built tennis, pickleball, and padel facility is conveniently located near Spaghetti Junction – the intersection of I-85 and I-285 in Northeast Atlanta. There are 8 tennis courts (4 covered, 4 outdoor), 19 pickleball courts, and 4 padel courts – all with lighting. We also have a modern restaurant & bar and multiple event spaces available to our customers and for events.
We are Atlanta’s first public offering of scaled pickleball, indoor tennis, and padel offerings, and we are easy for people to get to given our convenient location at the intersection of 85/285.
We have a wonderful staff that provides high quality customer service, sports programming, and event offerings to our customers, leading to 150+ reviews on Google and a 5-star rating.
For any readers that are looking to explore racket sports, whether it’s an experienced player looking to improve in their existing sport, an experienced racket sports player looking to try something new (like pickleball or padel), or just a beginner who is looking for an un-intimidating and friendly environment to start playing racket sports in a place with a friendly and passionate community – we are a great home for anyone!
We also offer a robust set of offerings, from beginner to high-performance players aspiring to be college athletes. Our camps feature racket sports, ample indoor space to stay out of the summer heat and friendly staff that provide a fun and dynamic environment for kids who are looking to make new friends and be active over the summer.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Our summer camp offerings for kids are open for sign up!
https://itpta.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ITAATL-Spring-2025-Camp-Quickstart-Guide1.pdf
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jcNjZVFiolWuzlzCgeO8TEPkdxdVGAS3h8kM5j9qZIw/viewform?edit_requested=true
Contact Info:
- Website: https://itpta.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/itp_atlanta
