FARGO — Slick City Action Park will be sliding into home, right on schedule.
At the beginning of this year, franchise partner Dan Bryant told The Forum he hoped the indoor slide park/entertainment center at 3430 Jacks Way S., Fargo, would be open by Thanksgiving.
Construction on the 30,000-square-foot building has gone so well that it now should open to the public 10 days before Turkey Day: Monday, Nov. 17.
Bryant chalks up the punctual timeline to Slick City’s general contractor.
“Gehrtz Construction has done a phenomenal job. They’re so good at coordinating subcontractors,” he told The Forum. “Quite honestly, I picked them for that reason.”
Visitors to the site can already envision what the completed park will look like, as most of the major components are in place.
Tammy Swift / The Forum
Thirteen slides in fluorescent colors twist, curl and swoop along the west wall. They are supported by a labyrinth of black metal towers, which house the steps up to the various different slides.
“We are one of the first Slick Cities to get the newer slides, which are all fluorescent from the standpoint that they light up under blue light,” Bryant says.
Huge murals in matching colors glow from the black walls. Several of the images are uniquely Fargo, including a big bison in sunglasses, a Fargo Theatre sign and the train car parked near the historic Northern Pacific Depot in downtown Fargo.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
“When they put in all these blue lights too, not only does the paint reflect that but it can also make the wall look like it is moving, to some degree,” Bryant says.
As complete as the construction looks, Bryant says there are still hundreds of finishing details which need to be done before they get their certificate of occupancy Nov. 1.
The restrooms are lined with beautiful ceramic tile but still need fixtures. Rubber flooring has to be installed around the slides while the polished-concrete floor is finished in the open areas. The basketball and volleyball air courts must be installed and the miniature play equipment for the children’s room isn’t built yet.
Once that punch list is completed, staff training can begin. That will be followed by a private “friends and family” opening to work out any last-minute issues.
So right now, the atmosphere is one of choreographed chaos, as painters, carpenters, metalworkers, concrete-workers, electricians and special Slick City slide installers buzz around each other while intently concentrating on their specific tasks.
“We have a lot to pack into the next two weeks, but they assure me it’s all going to come together,” Bryant says. “Even in one week, it will be dramatically different. Signage should be up next week on the outside of the building.”
Slides built with NASA technology
Bryant isn’t alone in this venture. He’s building and running the business with partners Ryan Goodman, Brady Nash, Derek Brandenburg and Lucas Sjule.
Bryant didn’t disclose the exact amount spent to build Slick City, although he said it was in the “multi-millions of dollars.”
However, he already had an idea of how expensive it can be to start a family entertainment center, as he built Fargo’s SkyZone Trampoline park in 2014.
Bryant sold SkyZone several years ago and said he didn’t intend to get back into family entertainment until he learned about Slick City. One of the major advantages is Slick City’s broader appeal across different age ranges and fitness types.
“This is more of an ‘all thrill, no skill’ thing,” Bryant said in an earlier interview. “This serves a wider demographic of age, which is a positive.”
The company’s distinctively designed slides range from nearly 90-degree drops to corkscrews, waves, hills and the Mega-Launch, a slide which launches thrill-seekers straight in the air until they land on a pillowy airbag.
But they also owe their slippery, high-speed surfaces to Slick City’s partnership with Gary Schmit, who worked with a NASA scientist specializing in tribology (the study of friction and wear) for years to develop some of the fastest slides around.
Special installers from Schmit’s Slick Slide company travel around the country to install the elaborate slides.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Another specialized team, Interactive Artworks, travels to new franchises to do the murals. A team of generalists project the images and sketch out the basic lines while the top artist of the team comes in to do detail work that makes the renderings come alive, Bryant says.
Meanwhile, local contractors are finishing the 2,500-square-foot mezzanine, which will be the space for private parties. Tucked below the mezzanine will be a large snack bar, restrooms (including a family restroom), a parents’ lounge and, right next to it, the 5-and-under play area.
The children’s play area will be enclosed for added safety. Observation windows from the parents’ lounge into the children’s playroom allow parents to keep an eye on their little ones, Bryant says.
Bryant and his partners also kept other parental preferences in mind while designing the building. “We spent a lot of money on nice bathrooms,” he says. “People like clean places. That’s what we care about most.”
The Slick City Action Park will be located near other amusement centers, including Kingpinz and Suite Shots.
So far, Bryant says he’s received lots of positive buzz about Slick City’s opening. He’s been helped along by his daughter, Brooke Donahue, a social-media influencer whose TikTok posts on the center’s progress yield hundreds of thousands of views.
Family support doesn’t stop there. His son-in-law, Chase Wolff, will be the general manager and is hiring people to fill the 100 or so positions needed to run a seven-day-a-week park. His 21-year-old daughter, Abby, will also help manage the place and his 14-year-old daughter, Krista, will work there.
And then there’s his granddaughter, whose main job will be, well, acting like a 4 year old. “She will be doing a lot of sliding,” he says.
To apply for jobs or learn more about the park, visit