Oso Skate Park to close in Plaza Midwood, but a new, bigger location is in the works.
Oso Skate Park will close its current location in Plaza Midwood on Jan. 15.
In a video, co-founder Phillip Gripper said Oso’s three-year lease has ended and that the park “wouldn’t be able to survive” under a new rent increase without also having the ability to expand.
The park, which opened in November 2017, already has a new location lined up at 4327 Raleigh St., just north of NoDa. The new facility will have 6,000 square feet of indoor space, compared to the current location’s 4,500 square feet. It will also have an additional 12,000 square feet of outdoor space and a pro shop.
There’s a lot to be excited for, Gripper said, but he wants to make it clear that the park will need help to make it happen.
“I would say that this situation is both a gift and a curse,” Gripper said. “We were closed from March to September, and so that’s half the year. Since reopening, we’ve only had about a third of the business. It’s been impossible for us to make money, and we spent all of our savings during the time we were closed because we had to pay rent the entire time.
“We’re excited about being in a new space that’s bigger and being around other businesses that are of like mind, but at the same time it’s very stressful because we’re strapped for cash, and we have to kind of make a lot of money really fast.”
Most of the funds needed are for new bathrooms that need to be built, which will cost an estimated $30,000 to $40,000. The public can help fund these renovations and other necessary work by donating or pre-purchasing annual, monthly or weekly membership passes that can be used later, Gripper said. The new location should be open by June or July, and Oso is also pre-selling week-long summer camps for kids wanting to practice on skateboards, scooters, BMX bikes, or quad or inline skates.
A hub of arts and culture
The new building is owned by the Flywheel Group, which has developed properties like Sugar Creek Station, Station Lofts and more. President and founder Tony Kuhn also worked with the city of Charlotte on Camp North End (before it was known as such).
He has a very different vision for this new property, which he is tentatively calling the Trailhead District due to its proximity to the Cross Charlotte Trail.
“We think it’s going to be a really unique collection of tenants and create a hub of arts and culture in this part of town,” Kuhn said.
The first tenant to commit to the space was the Charlotte Art League, which is currently located about a quarter-mile west of the new property. After that, Kuhn started receiving interest from others.
“More and more people kind of through word of mouth got interested in this community arts building,” Kuhn said.
Flywheel Group is currently in conversations with a deli, and AerialCLT will move its facility from North Tryon Street. There will be a 150-person performing arts theater, and the Charlotte Film Society has signed a letter of intent and is currently raising funds to bring a three-screen independent theater to the space, as well.
Kuhn wants to highlight art both inside and outside. One point of inspiration was the Wynwood Walls, an outdoor museum of street art in Miami.
“In addition to the Charlotte Art League, we’re going to have this corridor gallery space,” Kuhn said. “We don’t know exactly how it’s going to be programmed yet, but we know it’s going to be about bringing back that art gallery vibe to the district.”
More than a skate park
Flywheel Group’s focus on the arts, music and culture resonated with Gripper, who is also a musician. Oso has often hosted live music, however the shows would sometimes sprawl into the skate park. Now, they’ll have space for both music and skating.
“The owners want us to have shows, and they encourage it,” Gripper said. “This space is much more open to music, much more open to art, and those are two main factors that are a part of the culture of action sports.”
Oso Skate Park hosted all ages shows, Gripper said, providing a safe space for teenagers to appreciate and perform live music.
“There aren’t very many actual venues that allow teenagers to come and do their thing, but there are plenty of teenagers in bands and even kids younger than that,” Gripper said. “Being able to host a space that’s safe, where parents don’t have to worry about bad things happening, just making sure it’s an overall positive vibe and providing kids an area to be able to show this creativity and harness their talents in that field was a huge thing for us, too, that we were sad we’d lost out on.”
Skate parks aren’t always the most lucrative businesses, Gripper said. But that wasn’t why he opened Oso with co-founders Brett Coppedge and Chris Hostetler.
“It was never a money thing for us,” Gripper said. “It’s a community thing. It’s very important that kids have a sheltered place to go. We currently provide a space for people of all ages to come to and feel better about themselves.”
The park frequently hosts #communityunity events to raise funds, clothes or supplies for those in need.
Building a destination
When Gripper met with the Flywheel Group, one of the places he showed them was Woodward, a camp devoted to action sports. Located in the Pennsylvania countryside, the sprawling 48-acre campus boasts several indoor and outdoor skate parks, BMX tracks and one feature in particular that captured the attention of the folks at the Flywheel Group. “The owners mentioned three times in our visit that they want us to build a mega ramp,” Gripper said. “So that’s in the air.”
Woodward’s ramp, which is actually called the “mini mega ramp,” is a massive wooden structure that sends skaters flying over a huge ramp and then back up to an 18-foot quarter pipe.
With just three acres on the property, it’s unclear if Oso will be able to construct something like that in the future. Yet that’s the kind of bold direction Kuhn would like to take with the park, creating something that could host events and draw people from all over.
Both Kuhn and Gripper are excited about the outdoor space, which the current location does not have.
“Having not only indoor but also outdoor space creates a little bit of a destination,” Kuhn said.
For Gripper, it means being able to continue expanding on the wood ramps inside, while working with concrete more outside to create both park and plaza-style features.
“We can have more obstacles, more things to grind, more things to jump off of,” Gripper said. “It’s going to give us a lot more ability to build something for everyone. Our current space is very small, and so we can only fit so many things in there. In this space, there’s going to be enough space to build sections that are specific for sports.”
The park welcomes skateboards, scooters, BMX bikes and quad skaters (the “quad phenomenon,” as Gripper calls it, has accounted for the park’s biggest growth over the last year or so).
In addition to catering to those who are already skating or riding, Gripper wants to be able to also nurture new athletes along the way. Through the pro shop, Oso will sell new equipment and also stock replacement parts that people would otherwise have to purchase online.
But before they can get to that point, they need to raise funds so that they can take advantage of the opportunity.
“It’s one of those situations where we have to make this work, you know, because we aren’t going to be able to find this sort of deal anywhere,” Gripper said. “It’s very important that we’re able to survive so that we can continue to do great things and see these kids from high school and into college that we’ve had now for three years. We just hope that we’re going to be able to make it work.”
Oso Skate Park
4327 Raleigh St. (Opening summer 2021)
Instagram: @ososkatepark
