Joe-nyc park
Joe good luck I always thought of it, but do not think the money is there unless you have major sponsors backing you. I hope you accomplish it though.

As for a NEW Indoor in Upstate NY, VT, ME, NH- If anyone is interested in starting something or looking into one, please hit me up. I have been wanting to move to one of the above to open a new park.

All responses greatly appreciated and if I gain some knoledge I will diffinatly repay the favor in the future.

Thanks!

I too am in the “pencil to paper” phase of considering an indoor park. I’m definitely going to do the research before committing to ANY project! Obviously it’s a tough business to make money in, but is *anyone* out there making a living from a private park?

A few advantages that I feel that I have – I’ve been “in the industry” for the past 10 years so I have lots of connections (which could hopefully help to bring demos, decent brands for a pro shop, promote, etc.), I grew up in the restaurant industry (another notoriously tough biz to make a living in and I think I can run a good little concession business) and I want to put my park near a destination ski resort (small town, over a million visitors each year, the closest park is in a city 60 miles away and there is only one park there).

Anyone else take advantage of a local snow shred scene? Seems like the kiddos might want to get away to skate after a few days of snow (especially during bad conditions) and there is a lot of crossover between the sports.

Any thoughts or other resources would be appreciated.

Reading through this thread, I thought about other sports like climbing and surfing have the Access Fund and the Surfrider Foundation. Organizations that work to protect areas in which people do those sports. If there isn’t something like that for skateboarding and other forms of riding there should be. We should pool our resources as a community and get more terrain built and maintained. I appreciate what Tony Hawk is doing with his foundation but we could be more organized as a group of people with common interests and do more to promote those interests. I guess it starts with supporting your local shop or your local indoor park, but for me, if that means supporting the oil companies (ie driving 40 miles) its tough.

Well, I’m just seeing this empty sprawl mart here in town and can’t stop thinking about doing power slides on that polished concrete floor.

I always wanted to outright own the land and structure so that we could do with the park as we pleased, design-wise and other considerations. My friend said that was the way to go so that you also don’t get evicted because of a bad real estate deal or the owner decides to sell the land and bolt for some other opportunity. As far as land costs, rates are down now and will stay this way for at least another year; also the City of Chicago has been known to actually give away properties they own if nothing is being done with it or if a community centered facility wishes to plant down. If they don’t give it away, they could offer it cheap too. My friend is rubbing shoulders with some local Aldermen and will be asking around for me. How freakin’ gnarly is that?

The next step right now is to gather investors to foot a $200,000 start so that a loan can be approved for building. My friend will do the footwork for finding a lot that is big enough and accessible to public trans. Once we get the funding, we’d court architects that would be able to design a structure that would accommodate a modular park ( we do want to mix it up once and a while, don’t we?) and entertainment facility. Once we find an architect that could accommodate our needs, then we would contract the park designers (I’m leaning on Team Pain for this because of their legacy to do the impossible), and all the vendors that would take part in making the park design materialistic.

Allin all, this could take 2-3 years. I’m willing to see this come to fruition and will sweat blood and tears to see it happen and am ready to fight for it. I’m stoked that I’m finding some good people to help out on the business side who aren’t in it for the money, but desire to see a dream come true and believe me, I’m pretty damn picky. Thank you to all who are offering to volunteer too. I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on as it happens and will call on some of you at some point to be a part of this project. Keep skating and keep skating alive! Peace!