Ann Arbor Skatepark

UPDATE 1/20/2014

Construction started in August, 2013, and the park was just over half completed by the time snow came.

The Ann Arbor Skatepark will open as soon as construction is complete, hopefully late spring. The grand opening will be on June 21, International Go Skateboarding Day.


UPDATE 7/23/2012

We are rolling downhill, people! Here’s a big update on recent happenings, and what’s coming in the next few months…

Design/Construction
Last week the Ann Arbor City Council unanimously approved our recommendation of Wally Hollyday to design the skatepark and oversee construction. During the next couple months we’ll be working to finalize a design that will satisfy the needs of the skaters, the neighborhood, city and county officials, and the community at large. We’ll post updates when public meetings are happening.

The timeline to finalize the design is between now and mid-fall. The next step is to bid out and hire the builder. We hope to have the design complete and builder hired by the new year. Our goal is to break ground next spring (2013) as soon as the weather is suitable!

One MILLION dollars! (Cue Dr. Evil)
Although the skatepark is scheduled to be built next spring, we still have a lot of fundraising to do. Our plan from the beginning has been to complete our fundraising goal of $1,000,000 which would include $100,000 in an endowment for maintenance and upkeep of the skatepark. The plan was to take 10% of each gift, and put it into our endowed fund. That plan changed slightly, in a good way. The two major grants that we were awarded, the matching grant from the Washtenaw County Parks Commission, and the Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund Grant add up to $700,000. This is great, however these grants can only be used for construction of the skatepark, not the endowment. So, all the money we raise from here on out goes directly to the endowment. To reach our $1,000,000 goal, we need to raise approximately $150,000 more. $80,000 will go straight to the endowed fund.

With your help, we’re going to reach that goal. We’re proud to have worked so hard, and been so successful at creating this recreational gift for our community. It’s been a team effort that has not been seen in a long time in our county. We truly appreciate all that everyone has done to help us get to where we are.

Art Fair
Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. This was our fifth year in attendance, as part of the Washtenaw Nonprofits section of the fair. Our goal was to raise $4,000 over the four-day event. With the 3 last-minute engraved brick donations that came in on Sunday, we nearly reached our goal, raising $3,575! THANK YOU!!!

Part of the amount raised was a raffle for four items on our swag list. We sold 296 raffle tickets! The winners will be contacted this week, and with their permission, we’ll publish their names on our website and FB pages. T-shirts, decks, stickers, hats, and keychains were flying out of the booth as people showed their support for the skatepark with their wallets and credit cards.

Our Art Fair fundraiser could not have been so successful without the volunteers (many of them non-skaters) who stepped up to spend a couple hours talking to people about skateboarding and the Ann Arbor Skatepark. These volunteers are the people in our community who donate money, time, and sweat to make sure the skatepark becomes a reality! Many of the volunteers stayed way beyond what they signed up for, and we really appreciate it. We hope to see many new faces at our Art Fair booth next year.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @a2skatepark for all the latest updates, as well as join our Facebook page.

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The Friends of the Ann Arbor Skatepark is a coalition of parents, skaters, teachers, business and community leaders, dedicated to the development of a public skatepark in Ann Arbor. Their mission is to build a free, public, concrete skatepark as a permanent resource for residents in the Ann Arbor area. The skatepark will be designed and built by an experienced skatepark contractor, and include local skaters in the design process.