Slick City Action Park is opening at 11505 NE Fourth Plain Blvd in Vancouver, WA, taking over a 35,500-square-foot space left behind by Joann Fabric after the craft chain’s bankruptcy and nationwide closures last year. Franchisee Jordan Wade confirmed to What Now Portland that he and co-owner Matt Lambeth are targeting a mid-October opening, with this becoming the first Slick City location anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, no Washington or Oregon location has ever existed before this one.
The concept is described as an indoor slide park built on patented slide technology, essentially a dry version of a water park. Wade and Lambeth already operate one location in Salt Lake City. Wade said he spent years in the trampoline park industry, including working directly for Sky Zone with locations across Vancouver, Gresham and Beaverton, giving him firsthand familiarity with the Portland metro area long before Slick City itself existed as a concept. When Slick City began franchising roughly seven or eight years after developing its slide technology, Wade said he was one of the first to sign on.
Finding the right space wasn’t simple. Wade said the slides require unusually tall ceilings paired with a large footprint, a combination that severely limits available real estate. He specifically wanted Vancouver over other nearby markets, citing the city’s family-heavy demographics, easy freeway access off the highway rather than a maze of surface streets, and his own familiarity with the area from his Sky Zone days. Wade and Lambeth signed a 10-year lease on the space, with options to extend even further.
What sets Slick City apart from typical entertainment venues built mainly for kids. “Everyone can slide,” he said, pointing to families, college groups, school groups and clubs as regular participants rather than just young children. “It gets the whole family participating together.”
“We’re excited to become part of the community,” Wade said. “We want to build a team and a presence there. We look forward to employing lots of people and just becoming a support to the schools and families in the area.”
