Indoor bike and skate park more than halfway there
Posted Apr 24, 2018 07:23:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An Ottawa entrepreneur and avid mountain biker is getting closer to his goal of being able to open a 40,000 sq ft indoor bike and skateboard park in the city.
Anthony Bereznai sent surveys around last year to gauge community interest, and is now looking to raise $100,000 for the project named, “The Yard.”
“We just want to make sure enough people will come to make this viable, long-term,” Bereznai told the Rick Gibbons Show on 1310 NEWS. “We did put out a survey last year, which showed that there is tons of support behind us. Now, we're just looking for people to give us a little more of a solid contribution by buying a few tickets ahead of time so we know that they would come.”
Once the Kickstarter goal is reached, the entrepreneur said he will be looking to lease a property — although the search for the right location continues.
“It'll be in a big warehouse space, and it will have a lot of different wooden features,” explained Bereznai. “We'll have boxes and things for people to jump on. For the mountain bikers and bmx'ers we'll have what is called a 'pump track' — think about a nice smooth wave which you can just ride, you don't even have to pedal, just by pushing up and down on your handle bars and [with] your feet, you can gain momentum. Then we'll also have
jumps and we'll also have an area called a 'street section,' which is very similar to other skate parks around town, but you can use it in the winter.”
Bereznai added that being able to skate, bike or scooter in the cold months is the big draw for his proposed business, but he plans for the summer months to be just as busy. He wants to run a number of different summer camps for kids and teens.
As of Tuesday afternoon, The Yard's kickstarter had already raised $57,000.
Listen to the full conversation with Anthony Bereznai:
