Skaters & Bikers
Have Lost A Lot

The "Skate Park Of Athens," a downtown collection of ramps and obstacles set up on an otherwise vacant lot to challenge skateboarders, in-line skaters and BMX bikers, is no more.
The lot at the corner of Hancock Avenue and Pulaski Street is being cleared to make way for an insurance business and the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce.

By late Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 10, the area where skaters had practiced their moves a day earlier was stripped of all but the last pieces of concrete.

Jason Thrasher, a long-time skating enthusiast whose interest has turned to documenting the activity, was photographing the loss of what had been "one of the best street courses [he'd] ever seen."
A crew from Bishop-based Maxey Brothers, which cleared the lot, had come out Thursday, Jan. 4., to view the site and let skaters know that their work would begin the next day.

Noel Hoshitoshi, a skater and an employee at Ampt, a skate shop inside Sunshine Cycles on West Washington Street, said that, though skaters had known that destruction of the park was inevitable, it was still a shock when the work actually began.
"People were in and out of the shop talking about it," Hoshitoshi said.

Hoshitoshi said the crew tearing up the park had been about as helpful as they could be.

"They were cool," he said. "They were like, 'If you want to keep some of this stuff, get it, 'cause it's going to be gone.'"

Like others, Hoshitoshi isn't sure where skaters will now gather to practice and demonstrate their skills. He predicted they would probably wind up wherever benches, ledges, hand rails and other obstacles provide enough challenge, even if it means risking a fine or getting thrown off someone else's property.

"We don't really have another lot where we can put up the ramps," Hoshitoshi said.

"It's illegal to skate downtown, so this is all there was," said Thrasher.

There is a commercial skating facility for skateboarders, inline skaters and BMX bikers, called Skater's X-treme, located off the Atlanta Hwy., past the mall. But there is nothing near downtown.
Rick Stanziale, who was skateboarding in Athens in the mid-1980s and now sees skating through the eyes of a parent, wants to see the ACC government provide a free park like those in other communities.

"I've been collecting signatures for about six months," says Stanziale, who points to Gwinnett County as a nearby example of a community with public skateboarding facilities.

Like Stanziale, Thrasher would like to see Athens become more supportive of skateboarding.

"Other communities have embraced skaters, like Beaufort, South Carolina and Huntsville, Alabama," Thrasher said. "In Portland, Oregon, they're tearing down tennis courts and building cement parks for skaters."

One of the reasons, Thrasher speculates, is that skateboarding is a good activity for developing young people, which is a benefit to the community.

"It really teaches people how to be individuals," Thrasher said.
Providing a skateboarding facility, Stanziale said, could also attract people from other areas to come and spend money in Athens.
"While collecting signatures, I ran across so many people from Jackson, Oglethorpe and surrounding counties," Stanziale said. "It would benefit all of Athens."

Besides talking with staff at the Leisure Services Department, Stanziale plans to represent skaters' concerns to the Athens-Clarke County Commission.

"My district has a new commissioner, Carl Jordan," Stanziale said. "Maybe a public skate park is something he would support."
Besides a place for people to skate, Thrasher would like to see something else preserved. He points out that with the removal of the park goes a memorial to one of its brightest stars, a skater known as Elvo, who died three years ago.

"He was one of the greatest I've ever skated with," Thrasher said. "He kind of ruled this park." (Carley Wetherington)

Hancock Buildings
Somewhat Improved?

Athens' unofficial downtown skateboard park is gone now, as earth movers have begun site preparation for two new buildings on the corner of West Hancock Avenue and Pulaski Street.

The formerly paved lot, future home of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce and Chastain & Associates Insurance Agency, has been the object of speculation over the last few months, as mixed-use development fans dreamed of brand new additions to the Athens skyline and the possibility of retail and residential anchors settling in downtown's northwest corner.

That may or may not happen. While both the Chamber and Ricky Chastain have considered including shopping and living space in their buildings, neither has settled on a plan.

"Right now we're assuming we'll use the entire building," says Paul Miller, Director of Economic Development for the Chamber. Miller thinks the Chamber's new digs will be "at least two stories" - up from its initial one-story plan - but says a mixed-use building is "not something we've spent an inordinate amount of time discussing."
"There's some possibility of that, but we have to be mindful that we don't want to be competing with our members who are developers and owners of buildings. But since we haven't finalized the design yet, we haven't really closed on those discussions."

The property, half owned by the Chamber, half by Chastain, is situated within walking distance of UGA, downtown retail shops and surrounding residential neighborhoods. The Grit restaurant is close by on Prince Avenue, as are Daily Groceries Co-Op and the Bottleworks, the former Coca-Cola bottling plant now being restored as a residential/commercial complex.

Last year, Bottleworks developer Smith Wilson approached the Chamber and Chastain with his ideas for building on the downtown lot, which he says were welcomed.

"We've been real pleased," Wilson says. "The buildings are looking like downtown buildings."

The Chamber/Chastain construction footprint originally resembled a suburban "office park," with the two structures, facing West Hancock, separated by a parking lot. Parking has been moved to the back (beside Athens Blueprint & Copy Shop) - except for the lot on the Pulaski Street side, which is owned by First Baptist Church. A small courtyard is now set to go between the buildings. There are plans to level the lot for parking, but a retaining wall planned for Dougherty Street has been lowered to 5'6" at its highest point, and there will be landscaping from the wall to the sidewalk.

Apartment space on the property would put more students and employees within walking distance of the University. Chastain says that's a possibility for the top floor of his three-story building.
"I'm going to build me enough for my business, and then that leaves me with two more floors that I would like to build offices in if I can rent them and if there's a market downtown for it," he says. "My backup position is if there's not a market for that, then I would try to build some nice apartments."

Chastain says he would like to have retail space, "but I just don't think that's going to make any sense. I don't think it's in a retail area."

Chastain doesn't know when he will be ready to build but thinks he will start before the Chamber does. Miller says the Chamber could begin construction later this year.