Construction is set to begin on the final phase of the Roc City Skatepark, ending a nearly 20-year campaign by local skaters for an urban park.
The city is currently seeking a construction contractor to begin the initial groundwork for the park. Plans call for adding about 13,000 square feet of skateable space, as well as lighting and other amenities.
That portion of the park would extend southward underneath the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Bridge and feature a plaza design more in tune with street skateboarding. The city is accepting bids for development of the park through mid-July.
Skaters can expect more ledges, rails, stair sets, and open, flat ground space — a contrast to the tightly designed and transition-focused first phase of the park. The final design for the project was unveiled in December.
The completion of the second phase caps off nearly two decades of local skaters lobbying for an urban skatepark. Alan Presutti has been at the forefront of that effort as co-founder of Friends of the Roc City Skatepark.
“It's pretty amazing,” Presutti said. “But it's also exciting to see how it influences other towns and motivates other people to see that it is possible.”
The first phase of the Roc City Skatepark opened in the fall of 2020. A $1.5 million endeavor, the park had received support from the state as part of the Roc the Riverway riverfront revitalization initiative and the Tony Hawk Foundation’s “Built to Play” initiative. It also preceded a whirlwind of new skatepark developments across the Rochester region. The next phase of the park is supported by a $3 million state grant received by the city in 2023.
The project is expected to begin this fall and to open for skating in fall 2026.
Up until 2020, skateparks in the Rochester area were few and far between. The parks that did exist, like the odd assortment of ledges, banks, and quarter pipes at Ridgecrest Park in Webster, were low-budget and sparse.
But since then, a slew of high-dollar skateparks have opened across the region. Included in that list are poured concrete parks in Perinton, Medina, and, most recently, Greece.
Presutti said the addition of a street-oriented section helps the park meet the needs of a better variety of skaters.
“By having more flat ground and more open space, if you go there and you're learning to push still, you don't have to feel like you're dropping in on a big ramp and stuff like that. You can start flat,” Presutti said. “A lot of us older guys too, we didn't grow up with parks, so we don't have as much transition skill.”
The construction of the second phase of the project comes about four years after the Rochester City Council approved funding. Jeff Mroczek, senior landscape architect for the city, said it’s been a slow but methodical process.
“It's a slow process to get everything in line, but we want to have the best product we can moving forward,” Mroczek said. “So, it's worth taking that time to make sure we get things right.”
The unusual location of the skatepark underneath a bridge operated by the state Department of Transportation presented a particular challenge to the city.
Among the work cut out for the contractor tapped for the project is the removal and leveling of soil, pouring new pavement, and putting erosion control measures in place.
“The good part is, since they reconstructed the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony bridge, this is all clean fill,” Mroczek said. "There's not really any environmental issues to worry about, so it'll be easier than the phase one.”
Looking to the future of the park, Presutti said it’s a boon for skaters. But it’s also a benefit to all of Rochester.
“It's exercise, it's outdoors, it's downtown. It's bringing communities together. It's people traveling from outside of Rochester, coming into downtown and spending money,” Presutti said. “It's just one more thing to enhance what is Rochester.”
