Tennis soon will join football at the Viking Lakes project in Eagan, which started as the NFL team’s new headquarters two years ago and has grown steadily since into the live/work/play campus envisioned by owners Zygi and Mark Wilf.

The U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) Northern Section will move this year to the Eagan campus from its longtime headquarters at Lifetime Athletic in Bloomington.

USTA Northern Section executive director Becky Cantellano said the growth of the staff from three to 15 necessitated the move into the 3,000-square-foot office at the Vikings headquarters.

“We could have been in a typical office park, but this is much more exciting,” she said.

The nonprofit USTA is the national governing body for tennis in the United States and sponsors leagues and tournaments nationally. The Northern Section is one of 17 USTA units across the country.

The Northern Section doesn’t operate tennis courts, and none are planned for the Eagan campus. “We’re the first to be headquartered on the campus of a major sports franchise,” Cantellano said.

In 2016, the Minnesota Vikings acquired the nearly 200-acre property near Interstate 494 and Dodd Road, once the world headquarters of Northwest Airlines. The team moved to the site from its headquarters in Eden Prairie in 2018.

MV Eagan Ventures LLC, the Short Hills, N.J.-based development arm of the Vikings ownership, built and operated the campus. It includes the team’s practice facility and corporate headquarters, an outdoor stadium, museum, office space and orthopedics treatment center.

An Omni Hotel is under construction and expected to open this fall, and two apartment complexes with 261 units are expected to open in June 2021, according to Don Becker, executive vice president of real estate development for the Wilfs. The apartments will have a fitness center and swimming pool.

Becker called the tennis organization a “perfect fit” for the live/work/play design of the development.

Once the USTA moves in, the developers will have another 20,000 square feet to fill in the innovation center that opens onto the plaza by the stadium.

“We’re proud to welcome such a reputable, high-profile organization, and we look forward to recruiting future prominent additions to both the Innovation Center and the Viking Lakes campus,” said Mark Wilf, owner-president of MV Ventures.