Complex for ‘Extreme Sports’ Is Proposed

The county’s “extreme sports” enthusiasts may have an extreme place all their own: A developer has proposed a large sports complex for daredevils who want to practice such antics as bungee jumping, rock climbing, in-line obstacle course skating and skateboard ramp jumping.

Los Angeles-based SportsXtra, a recently created limited partnership, has entered into an exclusive agreement with the city to study the feasibility of building a 214,000-square-foot sports and retail complex on 5.5 acres of city-owned land now dominated by strawberry fields.

Sam Hall Kaplan, a principal in SportsXtra, said he designed the indoor and outdoor venue, which would be built on Garden Grove Boulevard between Haster Street and Sungrove Avenue, as a way to provide space “for all the things the kids are being thrown out of parks for doing.”

Kaplan said he envisions a two-story building for martial arts, two roller hockey rinks, a multilevel mountain biking track, an in-line skating course and an assortment of rock walls for climbing, bungee cords for jumping and ramps for skateboarding. For the more sedate, there also would be a jogging track and health club. The cost to build the center is estimated at $20 million.

“This is the end of the couch potato,” Kaplan said. “More and more people don’t want to sit around and be entertained. They want to be part of the entertainment.”

Kaplan and city officials said the idea is in response to the growing popularity of extreme sports, in which participants push the envelope on such traditional sports and activities as skating, climbing and skydiving.

Just a few months ago, in a program called “The X Games,” the cable network ESPN showcased such events, including sky surfing, bungee jumping and acrobatic skateboarding and in-line skating. Several TV commercials also have capitalized on the trend.

Some Orange County parks have opened in the past year to cater to daredevil skateboarders and in-line skaters, including Stuart’s Extreme Skate Park in Orange and Costa Mesa’s Pharcide 714. But none approach the ambition of SportsXtra’s proposal to accommodate so many activities under one roof, Kaplan and city officials said.

The new venture’s as-yet-unnamed facility would include 120,000 square feet of themed retail space, 14,000 square feet of restaurants and 80,000 square feet of so-called activity venues.

Preliminary plans for the complex call for an assortment of shops to surround the activity venues. A fee would be charged to participate in the activities.

“This is not another amusement park, and not another mall. We are trying to be very selective. There is a delicate balance here,” Kaplan said.

Matt Fertal, director of the Garden Grove Redevelopment Agency, said the city had envisioned some entertainment businesses on the parcel, though SportsXtra’s proposal is not what officials had in mind. Still, Fertal said, it is compatible with the retail businesses already in the area.

Kaplan, one of four partners in SportsXtra, will return to the city within three months with a report detailing such matters as whether the partnership has received the necessary private financing and whether the group proposes that the city sell its land or lease it and at what cost.

The city is also negotiating with Candlewood Hotels, a fledgling operation based in Wichita, Kan., and partly owned by Doubletree Hotels, on plans for a 130- to 150-room “extended stay” facility that would open by next summer adjacent to the proposed sports complex on the same plot of city land.

Kaplan said the sports complex would draw sports enthusiasts mainly from the county.

“Garden Grove is a wonderful location for this. And this site is one mile from the 57, the 5 and the 22 freeways.”

The concept, Kaplan said, is the “next generation of entertainment.” Southern Californians are weary of mammoth shopping malls and amusement parks and are looking for something different, he said.

Malls, he said, are “too big and have too many crowds. They’re also tired of multiplexes. We’re responding to this. People want to be more active. That’s what we are.”