Skate park at Moorestown Mall shuts down

Moorestown Mall's skate park ended a 10-year ride this week to make way for a new 12-theater cineplex that will offer more sedentary thrills.

Dan McCollister, owner of the Black Diamond Skatepark, said the wooden ramps and rails were being dismantled and placed in storage Monday until a new location could be found.

Plans to relocate to Plymouth Meeting Mall fell through, he said, because the mall's owners, the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, decided it would be "too expensive to do the construction" needed for the custom space.

PREIT could not be reached for comment. It also owns Moorestown Mall.

"All options are on the table, including looking at buying our own building," McCollister said.

Other spaces he considered at the Voorhees Town Center and at a vacant fitness gym in Cinnaminson were too costly, he said.

Black Diamond also has a skate park at the Franklin Mills Outlet Mall.

Die-hard fans who would ride their trusty skateboards, BMX bikes, and scooters at the indoor skate park were disappointed last month when they learned its lease was terminated early so the theaters could use the space.

The Black Diamond Skatepark, which opened six years ago at the former Vans, would attract about 100 patrons a day, McCollister said. At least that many showed up for a final ride Sunday.

In November, voters in traditionally dry Moorestown approved liquor sales, partly to help the struggling mall. Weeks later, PREIT announced plans to open a Regal Entertainment Cineplex and four restaurants that will serve liquor.

The existing theaters will be renovated and new ones added in the adjacent skate park space.

McCollister said that next week he would move the retail part of the skate park to a storefront across from the Community House on Main Street.

The shop will sell skateboards, snowboards, sneakers, and apparel.