Tri-Star Skate Park is Shutting Down

The start of Tri-Star’s building problems came soon after a snow storm.

It was January 23, and owners Sam and Shelby Snellenberger arrived at their shop on Brookpark Road to pretty gnarly news: a blanket of snow on their rooftop had melted en masse, and water was now seeping through into the park inside.

Two videos Shelby posted showed the mess, with barrels, trash cans and mop buckets set up hopelessly to catch the water. “The winds blew off a portion of our rubber roof off,” she captioned one video. “So it is raining inside our park.” The damage was enough: Tri-Star would be “closed until further notice.”

Nine months later the Snellenbergers announced on Instagram that, despite a cautious reopening in April, Tri-Star Skateshop and Skate Park would be closing for good by the end of December.

A post on Instagram on October 17 clarified that the Cleveland skate staple, which had been bought by the Snellenbergers in 2019, would be ending its long run primarily because, they said, of what they feel are ongoing issues with its landlords. Despite lawyering up, despite calling on their insurance company, despite badgering the building’s manager, they say fixes aren’t being made.

“Nothing has worked,” Snellenberger wrote. “Our landlord is not fixing a roof. We have no air conditioning, and no heat. And water coming in continues to ruin what we already have fixed.”

Shelby reiterated the complaint in a follow-up call. “We waited, waited, waited,” Shelby told Scene. “Landlord’s not doing anything. Constantly telling us, you know, that they’re waiting on insurance: ‘We’re waiting on insurance. We’re waiting on insurance.’”

“Meanwhile, nobody’s even looking at the roof,” she added.

Begun by skateboard enthusiast Jim Sakaley out of his van in 2004, Tri-Star grew into a reliable fixture in the Northeast Ohio skate scene through the aughts and 2010s, alongside Chenga and the Cleveland’s Rivergate Park. It’s welcomed pro tours led by Jamie Thomas and Andy Roy. It’s annual hurrah, The Bash, a kind of skate camp for diehards, was a two-day party. It was the prime stop for Baker Skateboards’ world tour in 2016.

But despite Tri-Star being a nexus for vert skaters and half-pipe riders, its rooftop damage in January has led to a scuffle between business owner and property manager throughout the year, with both sides pinning the reason for closure on the other.

“It’s all fixed, [all] temporarily fixed,” Michael Tucci, a lawyer representing the owner of 5300 Brookpark Road, told Scene in a phone call Thursday.

“There are no holes in the roof,” he said. “There’s no water coming in. The HVAC [and] the electricity works. Everything that [they] need to run the business has been done.”

Tucci said that the rooftop leakage following the January storm was remedied “on our dime instantly,” and chalked up Snellenberger’s claim as “just hyperbole.” He suggested that the building was involved in an insurance settlement earlier in the year, which supposedly helped pay for the water damage.

When reached by phone, building owner Gary Lapin simply deferred to Tucci or the restraint of his lease agreement when asked if the building repairs had been met.

“I cannot confirm any such thing,” he told Scene. “And I cannot discuss the tenants without having any permission from those tenants to have those discussions.”

Regardless of the state of repairs, the Snellenbergers’ decision to close sent a ripple effect of worry and downheartedness throughout the region’s skate community. Shelby said the shop’s sales had dwindled since they reopened in April, which meant relying on a skatepark she said wasn’t up to par.

Some responded by offering donations. Others offered shop vacuums and tarpaulins.

“I mean, we have, you know, hundreds and hundreds of people that, you know, are stoked to still come in here,” Shelby said, and still “have a spot to go to.”

Despite moving to a farm in Columbia Station after selling the business five years ago, Sakaley said he’s been lamenting Tri-Star’s closure from afar since January.

Intending to create a kind of Tri-Star museum in a “hangar” on his property—which hosted pro skaters Tony Hawk and Chad Muska in 2022—Sakaley said he’s meaning to buy back the shop signs, its product counters and even some of the ramps.

The goal being: not allow another gap in Cleveland’s skate scene.

“It affects the culture. A lot of OG Tri-Star kids have been blowing up my phone: ‘Why’s it closing?’” he said. “It’s not just about buying a board—it’s all about bringing people together.”

Tucci seems to be in agreement, Tri-Star should live. As long as lease and insurance issues are all ironed out.

“We’re not angry at them. We’re not mad at them,” Tucci said. “You know, we want to make it work.”

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