An old Sears store is being transformed into an absolutely amazing new indoor MTB park

A huge former storefront is being converted into Canada’s largest indoor mountain bike park, according to North Shore News.

The North Shore Bike Park will include 65,000 square feet of indoor space in the bottom floor of the old Sears store at the Capilano Mall that has gone through a major transformation, Mike Upton, the founder of West Coast Bike Parks Ltd said. The work includes a huge amount of change tearing out all the walls and storage spaces to make a massive, open-concept park for room for cycling.

“A lot of people who still live on the North Shore were the mountain biking originals and got the whole thing rolling, and some of them are involved. Some of the founders of what became known as downhill or free riding make up a good portion of the people who are involved.” Upton said. “It’s not going to really resemble Sears anymore, other than that you can see where the escalators were and you can still access the mall and get to the food court,” he said.

The space will be for both mountain bikes, as well as BMX.

“It’s all wooden structures. It’s a lot of flow. It’s a lot of jumping and pumping.You’re indoors, so you’re not riding down a hill. But there is elevation, there is the opportunity to do some jumping, do a lot of flow and technical. It’s closely representative of what you might ride on the North Shore mountains, anywhere between here and Whistler,” he added. There’s nothing nearly as aggressive as, you know, trying to navigate the black runs at Whistler Bike Park or even on Fromme, this will not go to that level, but it will nevertheless be fun for any rider who’s got that skill.”

The space is set to be open for business by February 2023.