Making Money On Indoor Skate Parks Isn't Easy. Why One South Jersey Skate Lifer Is Giving It A Shot

Skaters, bikers and scooter riders across South Jersey will have a dry place to ride this winter when a throwback — and somewhat risky — entertainment retail concept takes over a former industrial space.

Skate park Rad World is set to open at 450 Broad St. in Beverly on May 31. The 14K SF adaptive reuse project spanning two floors won’t be fully built out by then, but it will offer a wide array of obstacles to choose from, including a street course and a four-foot halfpipe.

Owner Ronnie Gordon is hardly expecting to rake in big money from the spot that was formerly a school, a church meeting spot and a print company. He does hope, however, to bring back a piece of the past for a new generation.

“We’re just trying to offer an old-school skate park,” he said. 

Gordon is a wood shop teacher for special education students by day, but he has also spent decades giving skate lessons. After two years of looking for a suitable property, he found the Beverly space through the mother of a student, who inherited the structure from her father.

“He wanted the building to be used for something for the youth,” Gordon said.

Rad World will host regular afternoon sessions where a wide array of wheel-based athletes can pay $20 to ride from lunch until dinner. But Gordon expects to make most of his money through lessons and summer camps.

“You’ve got to offer that service,” Gordon said. “Getting that fee for someone to ride it for a few hours is not going to pay the bills every month.”

Indoor skate parks tend to be ephemeral and have struggled as a real estate proposition. Gordon has seen many of them come and go since he started skating in 1986 after seeing the sport featured in the 1985 hit movie Back to the Future.

A wave of such parks were shut down in the 1970s and 1980s due to rising insurance costs and liability lawsuits, and the massive spaces required have also been a deterrent to would-be landlords and operators.

The Philly suburbs were home to several defunct parks, including Cheap Skates in Doylestown and the Vans skate park in the Moorestown Mall. The latter location was later taken over by Black Diamond, which once also had an outpost at Philadelphia Mills. 

These days, Skate The Foundry in West Philadelphia and The Yard in Ambler are the main indoor options in the region.

Part of the challenge is that indoor facilities face stiff competition from free public outdoor skate parks, which have become much more common in recent decades.

“On a really nice day, most people are going to want to be outside,” Gordon said.

And while skateboarding made it to the Olympics in 2020, the sport is also associated with a rebellious lifestyle that’s not always family-friendly. That is why some are betting on indoor parks to stage a comeback

Parents can “find outdoor skate parks to be a little bit chaotic,” said Dave Raffa, who owns Breaking Free Skatepark in Rochester, New York.

“People call me for lessons constantly,” he said. “It gives the parents peace of mind.”

Indoor parks also offer a key benefit for aging action sports athletes: “Falling on wood ramps is so much more forgiving than concrete,” Raffa said. 

His 22K SF park is located in an old industrial building that started its life as a rifle manufacturing facility during World War I.

“You’re looking for the cheapest real estate you find,” Raffa said. “That’s why skate parks are always in weird, old, dingy, dirty buildings.”

Raffa pays $5.50 per SF, which comes out to around $10K per month to lease Breaking Free. He considers that a great deal but noted that the space is certainly not Class-A.

“We have chronic roof leaking issues,” he said. “There’s zero insulation, so the heating cost is ridiculous.” 

During cold Rochester winters, Raffa pays $1,700 per month to keep the space at 48 degrees.

Skate park proprietors must compete with traditional warehouse users that are also in search of smooth floors and high ceilings, he said. Insurance is another major line item for indoor skate parks, though it’s not as cumbersome as one might think given how frequently skaters get injured.

“There’s only a few companies that offer it,” Gordon said. “It’s expensive, but it won’t break the bank.”

Still, Raffa warned that no one should open an indoor skate park expecting to get rich. He moved to Rochester in 2010 with hopes of making $30K per year but has only reached that goal once. High labor costs mean Raffa has given up on hiring employees.

“My wife comes in and watches the counter when I do skate lessons,” he said.

Breaking Free’s customer base also shrank 25% in the wake of the pandemic.

“The amount of people that ride is pretty small,” Raffa said. “It’s probably less than 1% of kids.”

Yet the small number of youth frequenting indoor parks get a lot out of them, Gordon said. Bucks County native Tom Asta was a regular at the Black Diamond’s Philadelphia Mills location, where he honed his skills before going pro.

“He is one of the best pro skateboarders I’ve ever seen in my life,” Gordon said. 

“That probably made his career,” he said of the sessions at Black Diamond. “There were already some really good pros who skated there all the time.”

Indoor skate parks might not pay, but that doesn't mean there is no payoff, especially for those who love the sport. And that doesn't exclusively mean skilled, image-conscious riders.

“Forget what you think about how cool skateboarding is,” Raffa said. “It’s really more so about kids and family and fostering strong community bonds.”