House of Wheels Ltd. - Edmonton

House of Wheels began as an idea somewhere in the middle of South Africa. (That's a whole other story.) The founders started with an exploratory website to see what the Edmonton reaction might be to an indoor riding facility. That triggered a call from a Real Estate Agent representing...

Ride N Play, which was operating in Edmonton's West End, and was for sale. Investigations led House of Wheels founders to scrape together all their pennies and bottle caps to purchase Ride N Play's equipment. A couple of months of work had all of the ramps and other equipment disassembled and put it in storage, waiting for the perfect new location.

The company founders discovered an excellent 15,000 square foot facility in South Edmonton, negotiated a lease agreement, and began moving in, starting in February 2018. Then, on June 30, 2018, House of Wheels 1.0 first opened its doors to the public, and was a flying, rolling, sliding success.

In March of 2018, The Boneyard indoor skateboard facility had opened in Sherwood Park. Shortly after that, earnest discussions began when the owners of Wheelz Scooter Shop, which was operating in St. Albert, AB, approached House of Wheels founders offering their business for sale. After all the satisfactory discussions and business ownership transfer was done, the founders disassembled the Wheelz store and 1500 square foot park and moved it into House of Wheels 1.0. Just 8 months after opening the first House of Wheels park, House of Wheels and Wheelz Scooter Shop became one, with full range pro-scooter sales starting in the South Edmonton location March 1, 2019.

Just before that happened, one Friday afternoon, The Boneyard announced via social media that they were closing their doors for good. Within a couple of weeks, House of Wheels customers notified the founders that The Boneyard's equipment was being advertised for sale. The founders contacted the seller, who turned out to be the former landlord of the Boneyard facility. Knowing by experience the amount of work required to remove ramps and such from a park, a deal was struck and the founders began disassembling a third set of ramps to move into House of Wheels. House of Wheels included revealing the newly purposed bowl and other related ramps thus acquired as part of its one year anniversary celebration, June 30, 2019.

Then, in a stroke of insanity, perhaps, House of Wheels founders noted with interest a 32,750 square foot facility available for lease just across the parking lot from House of Wheels 1.0. Wondering if they were losing their minds, they approached the right people, completed negotiations, and gained access to the new facility in November, 2019, just 15 months after opening HOW 1.0. 

Working all hours had the new facility ready to move in February 1, 2020, welcoming a flood of enthusiastic riders into House of Wheels 2.0. 

Then COVID hit. March 2020 was a game changer for House of Wheels. From then until May, 2021, House of Wheels' indoor riding facility was partially or fully locked down for a full 8 months. Careful planning, budgeting, accessing the appropriate government assistance funds, and continuing to serve our riding customers with the best scooter, skateboard, and bmx equipment obtainable in strange global conditions has allowed House of Wheels to remain a viable, solid business.

May 26, 2021, the Provincial Government announced a reopening plan, targeting as early as June 10 for the Park to open to the public, with some restriction on ridership, and as early as June 28, 2021 for full open access. 

In The Summer of 2021 House of Wheels opened a second location in Calgary AB. Starting as just a Pro shop during the demolition and construction of the new indoor park. The Park was open for riding December 27, 2021, becoming the Only indoor skatepark in Calgary to allow BMX, Scooter, Skateboard, Roller Skates, AND Inline blades. 

House of Wheels Indoor Action sports. All about riding. What a ride it has been so far.