NORTH SALT LAKE -- It’s been just five days since the landslide in North Salt Lake destroyed a home and threatened several others.
One story that hasn’t been told is that of the Eagleridge Tennis and Swim Club, a business that has been closed since the slide.
“Shock I think, I think we expected the walls to crumble, I don’t think we really expected the whole hillside to come down,” said Brad Ferreira, who owns the facility. “So it's been more shock than anything and trying to figure out what to do next.”
Ferreira has spent more than a decade teaching tennis on these courts. He built the Eagleridge Tennis and Swim Club from the ground up about 11 years ago and never imagined his business could come crumbling down in a matter of seconds.
“As I came around the corner I watched the mountainside slipping and pulled up into the parking lot and watched the whole mountainside slide into the club and the house next door,” Ferreira said.
The landslide destroyed the home next door and devoured a major portion of Ferreira’s property.
“It snapped the fabric of the tent and buckled the beams, the dirt has come past the retaining walls and covered half of the court,” Ferreira said. “We lost the upper parking lot, the asphalt has buckled about a 30 foot wall up there and the utilities shed in the back.”
From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day there were lessons taught on the club’s tennis court, all of that has been put on hold since the landslide.
“So not only loss of revenue from the tennis court but a loss of revenue from having the doors open and having people in here,” Ferreira said.
People like the members who work out in the gym or on the tennis courts or swim and socialize at the pool. People like the 60 employees who haven’t been able to work in nearly a week.
“Makes you realize how much we’re part of the members’ lives and how much the members are part of us,” Ferreira said. “We don’t consider this a business; we consider this an extension of our family.”
The tent's current state is a safety hazard, so the club has been told by the city of North Salt Lake that until the tent comes down they cannot reopen for business.
Ferriera said they’re working to figure out the safest and most efficient way to get that done so they can get the doors back open.
