Indoor skate park at risk of closing without holiday influx of cash

A local skate park is hoping for a Christmas miracle.

House of Wheels, an indoor action sport park, has turned to the community for help raising $55,000 it needs to stay open in the new year.

The park, which has another location in Calgary, is a place for skaters, scooters, bladers and bikers to escape the elements – especially when temperatures drop.

"The whole vision of the business basically is to combat those long winter months," said owner Bevan Purnel, who runs the parks with his brother and father.

"All of these things, they normally happen outside … We want it to defeat the winter and make it so that we can ride year round."

However, a warm, dry winter this year hasn't been the start to the season that the park needed.

Combined with an unluckily-timed pre-COVID19 expansion followed by pandemic shutdowns, the slow start has pushed the business to the brink of collapse.

"We've fallen behind on our rent," Bevan said. "Just to rent this building in Edmonton is $26,000 every single month.

"And that's just rent, let alone the other costs like heating it, and staff and all that kind of stuff."

Bevan said the landlords have been "pretty awesome" in trying to work with the parks as rent has fallen behind, but they also have business to run and bills to pay.

"So, with the fact that we haven't been able to ramp up this year like we normally do, the landlords have kind of brought the hammer down a little bit that we either need to catch up or move on."

Purnell started a GoFundMe and added a collection jar inside the park as a last resort effort to raise the cash to catch up on rent.

"That’s obviously a super scary step for a business to take," he said. "But I've got to say, so far the response has been humbling to say the least."

The park was busier than usual Saturday considering the lack of snow outside, as the community turned up in support of a place they've come to love.

BMX rider Justin Schwanke has been a regular at the House of Wheels since it opened in 2018. He said losing the park would be a blow to the whole community.

"It's these kinds of facilities that really sort of create a culture around these extreme sports in Edmonton and bring people together," Schwanke said. "So it's pretty critical.

"When there's ice and snow on the ground, you can't do these sports outside. So we need House of Wheels to stick around."

On Saturday, Bevan said around $12,000 had been raised. The company will need another $43,000 by the end of December to keep both locations open.

"It's meant so much and we got a long ways to go, but I know that we can get there if we just keep this momentum going and keep the positive vibes going."