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HELL ON WHEELS

Landlords’ dilemma: Skateboarders trespass, vandalize, intimidate and spend in shopping centers

By Molly Knight

John Kokinchak was shocked to see a teen-ager skateboarding down the steel surface between two escalators at one of his shopping centers. “The skateboarder was not seriously injured, but scared customers quickly got out of the way,” said Kokinchak, who is vice president of property management at Developers Diversified Realty Corp.

In the few years since that incident, thrill-seeking skateboarders have only grown more audacious, sending exasperated landlords in search of new solutions to protect their centers from damage and their shoppers from injury. Among the more unnerving tales are those that recount pools of blood left behind by skaters who have wiped out on sidewalks — to say nothing of the one who careened headfirst through the window of a Big Lots store, according to published reports.

“I couldn’t even begin to estimate how much damage is done to our railings and finishings because of skateboarding,” Kokinchak said. “We’re constantly repainting curbs and replacing benches to keep our centers looking nice.” (Indeed, one property manager in California says she budgets about $500 per month for each community center in her portfolio to hedge against damage caused by skateboarders.)

But scuffed curbs and scraped limestone fountains are the least of Kokinchak’s concerns. He worries that shards of fiberglass exposed after a skater grinds the bottom of his board through the gel coats of an outdoor picnic bench will find their way into a customer’s hand. He fears an out-of-control skater will leap over stairs and mow down an elderly couple.

“They don’t mind putting themselves in dangerous situations,” Kokinchak said. “It puts them at risk, and it also puts our customers at risk.”

And though signs prohibiting skateboarding are posted prominently at all Developers Diversified centers, Kokinchak says they don’t always work. “Unfortunately, our structured parking lots are very inviting to skaters,” he said. “Kids love those ramps. A lot of times they don’t stop to read the 22-by-28 sign that tells them they can’t skate, or they see it and they don’t care.”

In fact, those signs probably encourage skateboarders, says Irma Zandl, president of Zandl Group, a New York City-based teen-trend analysis firm. “Skaters are inherently irreverent and a tad punkish,” she said. “Part of the thrill of skating is the possibility of getting caught and kicked out.”

But landlords facing this problem are not helpless, insists Chris Loare, president and founder of a company whose sole business it is to deter skateboarders. His San Diego, Calif.-based Skatestoppers makes the skateboarder’s equivalent to the speed bump (or “sleeping policeman,” as the speed bump is called in the U.K.). Some years ago Loare was at his niece’s birthday party when his police officer brother began recounting the complaints coming into the precinct about the damage skateboarders were doing to private property.

“He said the volume of calls was just overwhelming,” said Loare. “He knew I had an entrepreneurial spirit, so he basically baited me by saying, ‘Gee, it’d be nice if somebody made a product to stop these kids.’ ”

From grinding to godsend
Loare started small by fashioning homemade, aluminum, L-shaped pieces that could be attached at intervals along the edges of benches and railings to prevent skaters from “grinding” — that is, sliding the board along an edge — on them and wearing them down.

After perfecting the model, Loare called the principal of a school a block from his home. “Her exact words were, ‘You must have been a godsend,’ ” he recalls. The principal hired him on the spot. It turned out the school had just spent nearly $50,000 for 100 picnic benches, about half of which had already suffered irreparable damage at the hands — or rather at the feet — of skateboarders.

Loare acknowledges that he was unsure at first how successful the invention would be. “Five years ago when we’d show up at trade expos, people would kind of laugh at us,” he said. “Now the school district won’t buy a brand-new bench without a skate deterrent.”

Loare now works with two bench manufacturers. He estimates that a third of his business is commercial, one-third is with schools, and the remaining third is with parks, community centers and similar public facilities. What began as a small business built around one simple product has expanded to encompass some 50 specially crafted pieces all designed to jam up the wheels of skateboards. Beyond the basic edge pieces, customers can choose from a range of materials and castings, such as silicone bronze liberty bells or yellow brass frogs.

“The maple leaf is most popular on the East Coast and in the Midwest,” Loare said. “On the West Coast anything sea-related sells the best. The biggest market is absolutely California.”

Illinois looks promising as a new market, he says. “We’re seeing a lot of skate parks go up in Illinois, which is a sure sign that skateboarding on public property is becoming more of an issue,” Loare said.

Not surprisingly, Loare’s products are not very popular with skateboarders, so they have to be able to withstand a lot of abuse. “Someone has to come with a sledgehammer or a blowtorch and hack away the entire structure if they want to remove our product so they can skate,” he said. “We obviously get a lot of backlash from the kids, but landlords seem to like us.” At West Court Plaza, in Sacramento, Calif., for example, skateboarders perpetrated some $4,000 worth of damage by taking a sledgehammer to a concrete anti-skating device.

To handle a vandal
Loare says some teens are “animalistic or sophisticated” enough to try to physically remove the skating deterrents. He says his company gets a lot of backlash from a Web site called SkateboardingSucks.com that directs traffic to his Web site specifically. He even avoids putting his company’s name on his truck because he believes that angry teen-agers would constantly vandalize it.

Skateboard vandalism is not an exclusively U.S. problem, and Loare says he exports his products around the globe. He estimates his company will post about $500,000 in sales this year. “I sold several hundred parts for a plaza near some of the historic museums in Tel Aviv, Israel, last year, as well as Britain and Australia,” said Loare. “The problem is definitely worldwide.”

Unfortunately, Loare’s deterrents were not an option for Salters Shopping Centre, in the English town of Droitwich Spa. The property, opened in 1976, featured an unusual design particularly appealing to skateboarders. Curvaceous plant-bed walls, external seating areas, a small amphitheater and a main square with three sets of stairs on sloping ground created a skateboarder’s Eden. So appealing was Salters that it actually was featured in a national skateboarding newsletter, says Kevin O’Hara, the center’s manager.

“Being an outdoor center, we are particularly plagued by skateboarders, who chip paint off hand railings, wax the decking — making it deadly slippery — and are an accident waiting to happen,” O’Hara said. “The younger ones are easier to control, but the late teens, early 20s adherents can be very aggressive and persistent.” Those, he says, sometimes get into physical altercations with security guards. They do not respect any control or restrictions on their activities. “Skateboarding in restricted areas for them is taken up as a challenge to their human rights,” he said, “and they will go to extraordinary lengths to exercise what they see as their rights.”

O’Hara says his center invoked bylaws prohibiting skateboarding, cycling and roller-skating. But the signs the management puts up get defaced, so security teams focus on shooing off loitering groups of kids. He says he would like to use skating deterrents like the ones Loare has designed, but they would put him on a collision course with the law.

“There’s a difficulty with British/European law that deters me from placing physical deterrents,” wrote O’Hara in an e-mail message. “I have a duty of care not to endanger even burglars and trespassers, let alone skateboarders. The secret to this problem is good design.” That is a lesson the center has learned the hard way, he says. Subsequent alterations have made the center less of a paradise for skaters.

Those plant-bed walls were flattened, for example. New furniture was installed and positioned to deter skating, and raised bricks were added to smooth slopes. Further, the sunken main square is being removed as part of an ongoing refurbishment, he says.

O’Hara advocates a tough approach to skateboarder vandals.

“Skateboarding in busy pedestrian areas, especially when they contain infirm older people and young families, is pure anti-social behavior and needs to be regarded as such,” he said. “Where they cause personal and property damage, the law should be invoked and claims for damages — criminal damage or personal injury — to bring home to skateboarders, and more importantly, their parents, that there is a price to be paid for this anti-social and reckless behavior.”

Velvet fist
But Developers Diversified is more cautious, fearful of antagonizing young shoppers who spend a lot of money at shopping centers. The firm is reluctant even to employ physical deterrents like those manufactured by Loare.

“These kids have disposable income,” Kokinchak said. “They bring billions of dollars a year. It’s not a demographic we can afford to ignore.” Kokinchak says Developers Diversified has shifted its strategy from punishment to education, by working closely with school administrators and through school assemblies.

“We work with a lot of schools that are close to our centers especially, because their kids are coming over and skating on their lunch breaks,” Kokinchak said. “We tell them we have to spend money to repaint curbs and replace benches. Most kids don’t know this. And then once they get this information a little light goes on and they stop doing it. Of course, some are going to continue to do it no matter who they hurt, just the way some adults break the rules.”

Landlords might consider building skateboard parks to distract skateboarders from their own properties, Zandl suggests. “Look at the opportunities to get more people into the mall as opposed to chasing potential shoppers away, and give kids a place to skate where it’s not against the law,” she said.

Having a nearby skating center works for St. Johns Center, in Leeds, England, says Victoria Uttley, its manager.

“We do not have any problems in the center or on the car park,” Uttley said. “That’s because there is a dedicated skate park at Hyde Park, four miles north of the center.”

ESPN has teamed up with The Mills Corp. to develop in-line skating, biking and skateboarding facilities within Mills centers. And Vans Footwear Co. has developed combination skate park-retail stores in dozens of shopping centers across the U.S.

“Vans has a very cool concept, because the kids can actually buy a monthly membership, and the entertainment value is high,” said Karen Raquet, executive vice president of the retail group at Jones Lang LaSalle. “We’ve tried to recruit them for a couple of our properties, but we haven’t been able to get them. Vans is very, very selective. We currently don’t have any skate parks in our centers, but it’s not because we don’t want them.”

Kokinchak says Developers Diversified is in a similar position. “We’re not involved in skate parks yet,” he said. “But I expect that space in shopping centers being allocated for skate parks is just around the corner. We’re leasing to a shrinking pool of tenants, and we’re always looking for diversity. Plus, we realize that skateboarding is a positive outlet for these kids, and we like to encourage that.”

But Loare says he is confident that there will always be a demand for his products, skate parks or no. “Plenty of kids follow the rules,” said Loare. “But the true street skaters are not going to be told where to skate. The second you tell them where to skate, they don’t want to skate there.”

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