CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A nonprofit organization in Charlotte wants to create a new home for skateboarders.

What You Need To Know

  • The Charlotte Skate Foundation plans to bring a new DIY skatepark to Charlotte

  • The Kilborne DIY Skatepark would be located at Kilborne Park

  • The group said it would be the first sanctioned DIY skatepark in the city

The Charlotte Skate Foundation plans to bring a skatepark built by community members after the demolition of a DIY skatepark at the former Eastland Mall site. 

Stephen Barrett with the Charlotte Skate Foundation helped start the Eastland DIY skatepark. 

“The best part of Eastland is being able to pull up any time, any day of the week and you had friends there,” Barrett said. 

Donations and volunteers built the park from the ground up.  

“Something about the spirit and the energy of Eastland being built by the skaters who were using it made it a very special community center for skateboarders,” Luke Giduz with Charlotte Skate Foundation said. 

It operated for seven years before it was demolished last year to make way for development. 

“Of course I was sad. I spent so much time there. I started bringing my kid out there,” Barrett said. 

Currently, Barrett prefers the size and features of skateparks outside the city, which means he drives 30 minutes away to reach them. 

Now, Barrett and Giduz are working to bring another DIY skatepark to the city, but this time with the approval of the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. 

“I hope it can serve as a really good jumping off point for the future of Charlotte skateboarding,” Giduz said. 

They say Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation is leasing unused tennis courts at Kilborne Park to the Charlotte Skate Foundation, where they can build the park. 

“I just wanted [it] because other kids coming up there, younger than me, [would] have a place to go and skate and not be bothered,” Barrett said. 

Through an online fundraiser, the group has raised nearly $12,000 to make this project a reality, which will be close to the former DIY skatepark at Eastland. 

“A lot of the hub of the skateboarding community is in east Charlotte,” Barrett said. 

The nonprofit said the funds will help secure liability insurance, which they said is around $8,000 a year. 

Charlotte Skate Foundation said the DIY park would be the first sanctioned by the city and county. 

In April, Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation said it doesn’t have a finalized agreement with the Charlotte Skate Foundation but hopes to find more information to share in the near future. 

The group plans to start using the space in the summer.