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CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA
REPORT TO THE SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM
Report: Award of Contract for Glorietta Tennis Operations
1. Motion:
(1) Approving the award of a five-year contract for operation of the tennis courts at Glorietta Park, with the option to renew on a year-to-year basis for up to five additional years, to Vigen Khanlarian and Artak Harutyunyan, joint contractors scored highest by the Selection Committee, and authorizing the City Manager to execute the contract; and
(2) Rejecting all other proposals to operate the tennis courts at Glorietta Park as being less competitive than those submitted by the above-referenced parties.
COUNCIL ACTION
Item Type: Action Item
Approved for May 12, 2026 calendar
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On January 28, 2026, Community Services & Parks (CSP) reissued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the management and operation of Glorietta tennis courts. Any suitably qualified tennis professional and/or company was eligible to apply, if they had a minimum of three years of experience as the principal party responsible for the operation of a public agency’s facility with a minimum of two courts. Experience must have included offering public open times on courts, tennis instruction, and coordinating other tennis programs.
The City received five proposals, of which three met the minimum required qualifications.
A Selection Committee was convened, consisting of management and executive-level staff from other cities, each of whom has experience overseeing contractual services, sports and tennis. The Selection Committee conducted thorough interviews of each of the three qualified candidates and scored them based on the criteria that Council approved on January 27, 2026.
Having received the highest score given by the Selection Committee, Vigen Khanlarian and Artak Harutyunyan, as joint contractors, are the recommended concessionaires. 12 26-89991
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RECOMMENDATION
That the City Council pass a motion approving the award of a five-year contract for operation of the Glorietta Park tennis courts, with the option to renew on a year-to-year basis for up to five additional years, to Vigen Khanlarian and Artak Harutyunyan, as joint contractors scored highest by the Selection Committee, and authorizing the City Manager to execute the contract.
ANALYSIS
CSP maintains 33 tennis courts at 10 sites throughout the City. CSP operates the tennis courts at three of the park locations through contracted concessionaires. These locations are Fremont Park, Glorietta Park, and Scholl Canyon Golf & Tennis. Scholl Canyon Golf & Tennis is operated by American Golf and Tennis, which sublets the tennis operation to Glendale Tennis Academy (GTA). The Fremont Park tennis courts are operated by GTA.
The Glorietta Park tennis courts have been operated by an independent contractor since 1996. The current contractor at Glorietta Park, Vigen Khanlarian, a sole proprietor, has operated since March 2015 and will continue to operate pending award of a new contract as a result of the RFP.
In 2021, the City’s Internal Audit staff conducted an audit of the tennis concessions at Glorietta and Fremont Park tennis courts. Staff recommended that CSP require tennis concessionaires to utilize a reservation/registration software as well as financial software as part of the next contract. The purpose of Audit staff’s recommendation that tennis concessionaires utilize a reservation/registration system is to enable system reports that accurately capture patron information and revenue, and their recommendation to utilize financial software is to adequately audit concessionaire revenue to ensure that they are paying the City the full percentage required in their contracts.
On December 17, 2024, CSP issued the RFP for management and operation of the Fremont and Glorietta tennis courts as the operative contracts were expiring. CSP included the utilization of (a) software system(s) in the RFP pursuant to the audit recommendations. On June 10, 2025, Council selected GTA to operate Fremont Tennis Courts and Vigen Khanlarian to operate Glorietta tennis courts. On September 30, 2025, Council rescinded its approval to award the Glorietta contract to Vigen Khanlarian and directed CSP to revise the RFP for operation of the tennis courts at Glorietta Park. Staff brought the revised RFP back to Council on January 27, 2026, with revised criteria and weighting. The revised RFP was released on January 28, 2026. The criteria for evaluating the proposals, and their respective weights, were as follows:
Evaluation Criteria Weight
Duration of experience operating a concession for a public agency, with a preference for experience operating a tennis or other recreational concession 5%
Previous development and implementation of tennis or other recreational programs
10%
Duration of experience directly providing tennis instruction and supervising other tennis instructors
10%
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Professional training and certifications received in the tennis industry 5% Business management experience 5%
Business awards or tennis industry achievements 5%
Open play by the public free of charge and without reservations required 15% Court rentals by the public at affordable hourly rates 15% Tennis instruction (group and private lessons) 5%
Tennis camps, tournaments, and/or other special events or programs 5% Integrated programs and services to accommodate persons with disabilities 5% Proposed payment to the City 10%
Daily Operational Plan 5%
CSP convened a Selection Committee of three management and executive-level staff members from other cities to review all proposals meeting the minimum requirements and to conduct interviews. The Selection Committee consisted of the Director of Recreation & Community Services for the City of Santa Clarita, the Recreation Services Manager for the City of Beverly Hills, and the Recreation Service Manager for the City of Burbank. The Selection Committee was asked to assign each proposer a raw score of 0 to 3 for each criterion above. The Selection Committee was not given the weight of each criterion. The raw point scale was as follows:
0-3 Point Scale
0 - Unqualified
1 - Minimally Qualified
2 - Well Qualified
3 - Best Qualified*
*Each proposer’s qualifications were scored based upon the extent to which they satisfied the Evaluation Criteria, not relative to other proposers’ qualifications. Thus, multiple proposers could, and did, receive a score of 3 for various criterion.
The point totals below show the average, weighted scores. Notably, the Selection Committee members were unanimous in the order in which they ranked proposers.
Selection Committee Weighted Scores:
Vigen
Khanlarian &
Artak
Harutyunyan
Homenetmen
Ararat & Vigen
Khanlarian
LA Tennis, Inc.
& HEAL-ACTS
Total Points
(3 points)
2.65 2.267 2.233
Vigen Khanlarian and Artak Harutyunyan, as joint contractors, were the highest-ranking proposers for operation of the tennis courts at Glorietta Park. According to the terms of the RFP, “The Proposer with the highest weighted score will be presented to the City Council as the recommended concessionaire.”
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The proposal submitted by Vigen Khanlarian and Artak Harutyunyan included 97 hours weekly of free time on courts that can be used by the public without a reservation. In addition to the free time, they included court rental hours at $10 per court, per hour, for standard reservations; and $6 per court, per hour, for seniors. Programming includes lessons, clubs, camps and annual tournaments. They also proposed to include “Adaptive Tennis,” with modified equipment and lessons, and they proposed to work with Easter Seals to reach out to the community. Their proposed payment to the City was the lowest of the three qualified proposers; however, they proposed the lowest court rental rates of the three. The balance between affordable and free courts and programs, and the amount of payment to the City, was valued by the Selection Committee. Their raw score was
33.333, which equated to 2.65 when each criterion weight was calculated. This was the highest of the three scores.
Homenetmen Ararat and Vigen Khanlarian, as joint contractors, submitted a proposal that included 28 hours weekly of free and open court time to the public, without the need for a reservation. Their proposal included court rental rates of $20 per hour, per court, for standard reservations; and $10 per court, per hour, for seniors. They proposed paying the City the highest amount of the three qualified proposers; but the Selection Committee did not rate them as high as Vigen Khanlarian and Artak Harutyunyan in the range of services offered. Their raw score was 30.333, which equated to 2.267 when each criterion weight was calculated.
LA Tennis, Inc. and HEAL-ACTS, as joint contractors, submitted a proposal that included 85 hours per week of free and open court time to the public, without the need for a reservation; and they also proposed to charge $0 for court rentals (reservations required during peak times to manage the flow of users, but at no fee). This proposal provided the most free and affordable time to the community; however, they were unclear on the cost for lessons or other programs. They proposed to pay the City more than Vigen Khanlarian and Artak Harutyunyan; however, the Selection Committee was unable to ascertain how they would generate that revenue when the court rentals were all free. In addition, some of the revenue they proposed to generate came from HEAL-ACTS (itself) paying for court time for programs. The Selection Committee felt that the balance between free time and payment to the City was not clear. Their raw score was 29.667, which equated to 2.233 when each criterion weight was calculated.
The recommended concessionaire proposes paying the following revenue to the City for the contract period:
Monthly Rent – $3,500 (year 1) - $4,057 (year 5)
Percentage of Gross Revenue – 5%
Projected Annual Gross Revenue – $93,500 (year 1) - $105,231 (year 5) Projected Annual Revenue to City (Rent plus 5% of Gross Revenue) – $46,675 (year 1) - $53,946 (year 5)
The new contract term for Glorietta is anticipated to begin on July 1, 2026. 15 26-89991
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The contract term for the operation is five years, and the City has the option of renewing the contract on a year-to-year basis thereafter, up to five additional times. Performance of the contract will be monitored and overseen by the Community Services Manager at the Glendale Sports Complex.
STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
Community Services & Parks provides outdoor recreational activities throughout the City to improve the quality of life for residents and visitors. By utilizing a concessionaire to oversee the operation of tennis activities at Glorietta Park, staff ensures that quality tennis lessons and programs can be offered, and reservations taken and made by the community, at a price-point similar to that in other cities in the area, without the need to hire additional City staff to operate the courts internally.
Stakeholders include City employees, residents and visitors to City facilities.
Staff advertised the RFP on the City’s website, the CSP monthly newsletter, and social media. Staff also reached out directly to all proposers from the previous RFPs in 2014 and 2025. In addition, staff kept a list of all inquiries made throughout the past 10 years and ensured that inquiring parties were notified directly of the RFP.
RFP criterion and weighting was evaluated after receiving feedback from Council and the community concerning the cost to rent courts at Glorietta and the community’s preference to keep pricing low.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no cost to the City to award a contract for operation of the Glorietta Park tennis courts. The City will generate the following concession revenue annually for the General Fund:
$42,000 base pay, plus 5% of gross revenue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA/NEPA)
The action being considered is categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15301 in that consists of the operation, repair, or maintenance of existing public facilities involving negligible or no expansion of former use. Moreover, because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, it is exempt from CEQA. (CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3).)
CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE
In accordance with the City Campaign Finance Ordinance No. 5744, the following are the names and business addresses of the members of the board of directors, the chairperson, CEO, COO, CFO, Subcontractors and any person or entity with more than 10% interest in the company proposed for contract in this Agenda Item Report:
Officers of Vigen Khanlarian and Artak Harutyunyan:
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Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip
Vigen Khanlarian Self 5049 Carolyn Way Glendale CA 91214 Artak Harutyunyan Self 1748 N. Verdugo Rd. #6 Glendale CA 91208
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATION
1. The City Council may consider re-issuing an RFP with amended requirements and/or criteria.
2. The City Council may consider rejecting proposals submitted by the recommended vendor and directing staff to operate the courts without a contract as a first-come, first-served free location like other community courts in Glendale.
ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Submitted by:
Onnig Bulanikian, Director of Community Services & Parks Prepared by:
Gabrielle Goglia, Community Services Manager
Tereza Aleksanian, Assistant Director of Community Services & Parks Approved by:
Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager
EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit 1: Tennis Operations at Glorietta Park Request for Proposals