River Trails’ new, improved parks facilities

The Zone, redesigned Maple Park highlight new offerings in Mt. Prospect

Bret Fahnstrom, executive director of River Trials Park District, shows off The Zone in the Kensington Business Center in Mount Prospect. It will feature soccer playing fields and parkour, a form of extreme gymnastics. (Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com)

Bret Fahnstrom, executive director of River Trials Park District, looks over a foam pit at The Zone, which you can jump or swing into. (Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com)

Bret Fahnstrom, executive director of River Trials Park District, shows off The Zone in the Kensington Business Center in Mt. Prospect. The district is hosting the grand opening for the building Saturday. (Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com)

Amenities at The Zone include a 14-foot-tall climbing wall. The building in the Kensington Business Center will hold a grand opening Saturday. (Courtesy of Christine Powles)

Maple Trails Park reopened May 5 with improvements including ADA compliant playground equipment, walking/cycling paths, gazebo, basketball court, futsal field and a volleyball court with artificial turf. (Courtesy of Thomas Pope)

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The River Trails Park District on Saturday, June 4, becomes the first park district in the state to offer a dedicated indoor space for parkour when it opens The Zone at 550 Business Center Drive in the Kensington Business Center.

Parkour is a form of gymnastics, street acrobatics and free running. It can be compared to the television show “American Ninja Warrior,” to military obstacle courses and to the CrossFit fitness regimen.

Parkour programs include running, jumping, catching, rolling, flipping, tumbling, martial arts and strength training. Amenities include a 6-foot-deep foam pit, a 14-foot-tall climbing wall, a similar height warp wall, walking beams, climbing rope and jump boxes. The district is working with Superhero Academy, a professional company that specializes in parkour programming, on the project.

The grand opening will be from 1:30 to 4 p.m. It’s free and all ages are welcome.

The park district purchased the building in 2003 to expand programming space and to open Clayground Art Studio. After 10 years of attempting cultural art programming and general facility rentals, it re-evaluated its use of the building. In 2015, the district looked at programming trends, strategic planning and evaluated amenities that could be used all year long in a more efficient format.

The district began phase one of construction at an estimated cost of $115,000 in the warehouse section of the building in January. Lighting was upgraded, tripling the brightness of the athletic space. District employees moved a 70-foot wall 90 degrees to create a nearly 13,000-square-foot interior play space.

The district added 7,000 square feet of artificial turf for athletic programs such as tot sports, indoor soccer, archery, golf lessons, athletic camps and birthday parties and more. The turf field can be split into six different sections with netting; up to three fields can be used at one time.

The renovation also includes new benches and seating area and new office space. Summer classes begin this month. The district is looking at using other space in the building to create more multipurpose programs in the future.

The project is the second major facilities improvement this year for the district, which dedicated a renovated Maple Trails Park on May 5.

The park at 871 Feehanville Drive in the Kensington Business Center now features Americans with Disabilities Act compliant playground equipment, walking/cycling paths, gazebo, middle-sized basketball court, caged rail system for futsal with built-in goals, and a volleyball court with artificial turf.