The upcoming 195-acre Torino Regional Park entered its first phase of construction last week to usher in a bevy of all-ages facilities, chief among them a skatepark/BMX track, due in the fall of 2027.
Builders and officials broke ground on the $21.4 million park – to be built out at 5601 N. Torino Parkway between Conley and Briscoe drives – in a Dec. 9 morning ceremony attended by approximately 60 city workers, planners and residents.
Representatives of West Palm Beach-based Burkhardt Construction, Inc., who will build out the park, also appeared. Founder/CEO Vincent G. Burkhardt presented Port St. Lucie Mayor Shannon Martin with a golden shovel to commemorate his company’s 50th anniversary.
Burkhardt aims, “like every project we’ve ever undertaken,” to build Torino Regional Park “on time and on, or under, budget,” said Burkhardt vice president Marc Kleisley upon presentation of the shovel.
According to the city website, Torino Regional Park will include the “Play Forest” playground with distinct “forest-themed pods”; a hiking trail through extant wetlands to the east; and the “Sprayground” splash pad.
A roundabout to further accommodate entry will be built just west of Briscoe Drive, city schematics drafted last year show.
Much of the city’s ceremony focused on the planned skate/BMX track to open near the Torino park’s epicenter. The Torino facility parallels designs in place for a skate/BMX facility in the 110-acre Tradition Regional Park, due to open next year.
Port St. Lucie staff’s decision to “cater to that market is impressive,” said Todd Burdick, the city’s manager of BMX operations for nearly a month. He will manage the skateparks in Torino and Tradition upon their opening.
Burdick, a Colorado native, managed the Sarasota BMX Track, the oldest in the U.S., according to their website. U.S. athletes trained there for the X Games and the Summer Olympics since the sport’s inclusion in the 2008 Beijing Games.
“Port St. Lucie’s been due for a skate park,” Burdick said after the ceremony. “It’s just really cool to be able to see something the city has been open-minded enough to put in.”
Both Torino and Tradition received their skatepark schematics from Action Sports Design (ASD), whose co-founder and principal Mike McIntyre presented at the ceremony. ASD has designed skating facilities at “over 300 public parks” worldwide including 38 U.S. states, he said at the podium.
McIntyre commended Port St. Lucie officials on their “willingness” to meet with skating and biking enthusiasts of all ages, he said. “This being planned from day one – knowing that you’re going to have people on scooters, bikes and skateboards,” he added, “they’re doing it right.
“Sometimes, we get projects that we don’t take on because they really don’t want to involve the community all that much,” McIntyre said. “Honestly, this has been the best community I have worked with.”
McIntyre took part in four public workshops from 2023-24 where “kids and adults were able to draw different ideas and concepts” on what the Torino skatepark would look like, he said. “Form follows function, so we had the function done first.”
Around “30 to 40 percent” of attendees at these workshops “were BMX riders” also looking to avoid long excursions to tracks around the state, which are seldom seen throughout the Treasure Coast, according to McIntyre.
McIntyre recalled the perceived stigma that surrounded the skating community when he founded his company around 2000.
“Most of these skateparks were fighting to justify why skaters needed a place to ride legally,” he said.
“When you step back and look at it, it’s like, ‘wait, they’re all trying to recreate,’” he added of how skaters took to riding along streets and public buildings to “express themselves.”
“I used to quote that ‘if your city doesn’t have a skatepark, it is one,’” McIntyre said.
Three decades on from founding his company, McIntyre indicated the “multi-generational” potential of a skate/BMX track in Port St. Lucie and beyond. “You have people racing in their 70s,” he said.