Project Details:
This four-season mountain bike resort development located in Arkansas goes far beyond what exists in the current gravity park market.
How Did We Help:
The knowledge and experience gained from developing our own mountain biking and sightseeing destination in Christchurch and from consulting on numerous other MTB projects around the world were highly valuable in seeing the big picture for what this project could become.
The Brief:
Select Contracts was engaged in 2022 to build on an existing body of work and prove out a feasible and exciting concept for a bike park and adventure park in Arkansas. The key challenge of this brief was determining how to build a park that will attract the attention and critical mass necessary to be a success, without overinvesting before key targets and milestones for the business are proven.
Our Approach:
To develop a riding destination and commercial bike park from scratch requires careful planning, phasing and smart commercial strategy in order to minimize the risk of assets and infrastructure being “overbuilt” before the market is proven for the area.
We performed a high-level site analysis, establishing suitable locations for base and peak infrastructure, appropriate chair-lift corridors and determining possible locations for beginner, intermediate, advanced and competition level trails.
The Result:
The resulting 5-phase strategy depends on a series of business-level targets that need to be achieved before progressing to the next phase. The phases are built to work independently if the market finds a natural plateau at a lower level than anticipated. The final grand vision is for a riding and adventure destination that will provide a sustainable and vibrant economic driver for continual improvement in trail and nature access infrastructure.