The Napier City Council is chipping in $15,000 to give the local skating club a temporary home until a new skate park opens this year.
Just a day after the closure of Sk8 Zone, the Marine Parade skating rink which has been the Napier Skating Club's home for almost 62 years, the council announced yesterday that it had leased a former winery warehouse in Faraday St, uphill from Carlyle St, as a "pop-up" rink for club members.
Cranes start clearing the Marine Parade site this week, a small amount of the ramp network being moved to the temporary indoor venue where the council hopes to have the club based within a fortnight.
The council is contributing $10,000 for an 18-week lease from the building's owners, the Salvation Army, and $5000 to the club to operate the facility, and says it's "an effort to bridge the gap" between the Sk8 Zone closure and the opening of the new Napier skate park, which will be on the Marineland site, also on Marine Parade.
Council community planning manager Natasha Carswell said the council had spent considerable time searching for an appropriate venue and was pleased to have negotiated the deal with the Salvation Army.