Skaters turned abandoned Tacoma property into community hub. Can they stay?
Residents of downtown Tacoma have said that 710 Fawcett Ave. was not an appealing location.
The lot has been vacant since the pandemic, according to Heather Moss, a nearby resident and former director of Pierce County Human Services. She told The News Tribune on June 26 that the space created “an atmosphere for bad behavior.” Homeless people and drug dealers were breaking into the building that was once a MultiCare center. A fire broke out in 2023, causing the building to burn to the ground, Moss said.
Illegal activities continued to thrive there, and trash buildup caused disturbances within the community, she said. That was until a group of skateboarders saw the area and transformed it into a D.I.Y. skate park this May. Moss said they cleared the trash, removed hazardous items, installed ramps, and more.
The property’s owner, Debbi Anderson, was not made aware of these improvements until her maintenance worker notified her.
“That’s wonderful, except nobody asked us,” Anderson told The News Tribune in an interview June 26.
Anderson said the skaters had “a total sense of entitlement” using the private property without her permission. Debbi’s maintenance crew told the skaters that they had until June 25 to remove their equipment, according to Alex Boone, a local skater and community board member of Alchemy, a skateboarding nonprofit organization.
The culture of skaters includes occupying unused space for D.I.Y. parks, Madison Blu’an, 24, a local roller skater, told The News Tribune on June 27.
“It hasn’t been easy to be a skater in Tacoma”, she said.
There aren’t suitable skate parks in the downtown area, so skaters often resort to making abandoned spaces their own until they are told to leave, Blu’an said.
Skaters anticipate permanent, high-quality skate parks from the city, but plans fall through or are delayed for years, Blu’an said. A $1 million community-voted project to build a skate park in downtown Tacoma was initiated by the city last October, according to a previous News Tribune article. Blu’an said the ball is slowly rolling for that project, but it could take years to execute.
“There’s so much promise for the future, but nothing to sustain us now,” she said.
The nearest park is McKinley Skatepark, about 10 minutes away from Fawcett. Boone said the park is “so bad no one skates.” Contrary to other parks in Tacoma, Fawcett has smooth surface that’s ideal for skaters, he said.
Cheef Williams, 17, started skating at Fawcett D.I.Y. in its early stages of development.
“We appreciate Fawcett. It’s different,” he said.
Williams, who’s an intern at Alchemy, said he’s never seen such a diverse D.I.Y. park. Fawcett became a welcoming space for people of all ages and skill levels to “connect and learn,” he said.
Fawcett was not limited to skaters. People would ride their bikes, walk their dogs and go for jogs in the area, Boone told The News Tribune on June 25.
The renovations of the property also impacted nearby businesses like Comprehensive Life Resources.
“We have watched the vacant lot transition from a trashed place where people were hanging out doing potentially illegal and unsafe activities into a place that is clean, cared for, and active,” Christine Gleason, the company’s spokesperson, wrote in an email to Boone on June 24. “We appreciate the transformation to a safer space for our clients and employees.”
After hearing about Fawcett, Anderson said she asked the skaters to leave the property for six weeks. She said she was “not putting herself at risk” if someone got injured on her property without insurance. The skaters removed their equipment in the last week of June, per Anderson’s request, in hopes of negotiating a deal to return, Boone said.
Establishing Fawcett without her approval, Anderson said, “soured this thing from the very beginning.” She said she’s considering working something out with the skaters professionally and legally now that they’ve vacated the property.
The skaters must have full liability insurance and pay yearly property tax, starting at $11,000, Boone said. The project started with about a dozen skaters paying out of pocket to develop a public space for the community, he said. They don’t have the funds to meet those needs, so Boone created a GoFundMe on June 29. Donations will go towards the insurance, property tax and rebuilding the skate park.
The group is also seeking support from the city and other partners for fundraising, he said. In a monthly board meeting on June 30, Alchemy decided to pursue being Fawcett’s insurance holder, which requires raising money outside of the company’s budget.
The property is for sale for $3.4 million. If the property is not sold and the skaters obtain enough funds to meet Anderson’s conditions, they can use the space again, according to Boone.
“I truly hope they are allowed to continue using and maintaining that space,” Sydney Ramey, the owner of Seven Four Seven Salón, wrote in an email to Boone on June 22. “Their efforts have made our corner of Tacoma feel safer, more welcoming and more cared for.”
