We have 5 Communities that have playgrounds. Most have been there for 15-20+ years and need to be replaced. After a quick google search, followed by a painful sticker shock, I wonder if the liability and maintenance required is it worth the investment? I know the families would love it but there are some people that will just vandalize it. Any ideas or suggestions?
I think it depends upon the demographics of your park. One of our parks was very heavily toward the 55 plus crowd so I had the same decision to make…should I invest in a new playground for such a small number of users?
Since the parents didn’t want to supervise their children at the playground and we had a few older kids whom we could depend upon to vandalize anything we built, I decided to just change our rules to allow for a small playset in each yard. and we do NOT allow trampolines or swimming pools EVER
If you have parks that do not have access to a public park system nearby or have a heavily family based clientele you may wish to consider how such an amenity allows you to compete in the market…if you are marketing towards families a nice play area helps sell the homes
so I think you have to look at it on a park by park basis especially considering the cost of these commercial playgrounds
While playgrounds do create liability, the insurance on them (in most markets) is not that bad. The bigger issue – as you’ve already identified – is if it is worth the investment to upgrade the playground. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said “it is not the cost of the fireplace, but to keep it in wood” which means that you are not only going to have an up-front cost to build it, but then continual maintenance costs. Things break on playgrounds frequently, either because of heavy use or vandalism.
To make your decision I’d A) see if the city requires it B) see if the state requires it C) see if your loan on the park requires it D) see if your seller carry loan requires it E) see where the nearest city playground is F) evaluate the “quality” of your tenant base, as far as maintaining property G) see how many people currently use it. Once you’ve really put some thought into it, the answer will be apparent to you.
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Thank you for your input. Has anyone eliminated the playground equipment and replaced it with something else like a basketball court?
Of all the uses for a playground, never do basketball court. We had a court in a park and there was a huge fight there and the police came and arrested about 10 kids – none of which turned out to live in the park. Basketball courts attract all kinds of undesirables from the area, the ultimate in a magnet for problems.
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Good point!
I don’t know about the liability issues where you are but in my area the risk of law suites associated with play ground equipment is far to high to take a chance. Most are removing the equipment for that reason.
Unfortunately many, especially many of those associated with parks, see law suites akin to winning the lottery. Making the mean old insurance company pay in their minds hurts no one.
I would get rid of the equipment and put in a couple of picnic tables (which if not chained down will be stolen).
We have a 60 pad park in a college town here in AL. Nicest park in town. Our demographics for this park run are all over the place. Retirees, college students (and dropouts) and couples of all ages and races. We have at least one lady with blue (neon blue to be exact) hair. One of the families in the middle of the park has a portable basketball goal the pull out by the road in the afternoons and the teenagers shoot on it. It’s becoming an issue because when the cars drive through the park the teens aren’t in any hurry to stop their game to let them pass through. Some residents are concerned about the ball hitting their car and have voiced this concern to me. Last week someone threw a rock at a car so we’ve been told. We also have a big, flat, 5 acre field we own right next to the park. We keep it mowed and folks walk their dogs out there, play footbell there too. We had planned to pave a small basketball court for them out there to keep them out of the road. Then I read Frank’s comments on basketball courts and arrests. Change of plans! We’d like to provide them with some type of recreation to keep them from just sitting around smoking weed and dreaming of what they can steal next. 
Any ideas? Plenty of room…don’t say soccer though cause you can’t really enjoy soccer with a 2 pack habit…lol. Thanks guys!
There are plenty of recreational areas in almost any town today – from parks to skateboard parks, to public basketball courts, to miniature golf and water parks. Maybe the best thing to do is to get them to leave the park and find their recreational areas elsewhere, by giving them nothing to do in the park. Having them in the park is problem enough. Encouraging them to hang out there is even worse. On top of that, whatever you build is going to cost real dollars to build and maintain and insure. You’ll be money ahead – and quality of life ahead – to build them nothing, and to get that portable basketball goal out of there. Your insurance company is not going to be happy when a car hits a kid playing on it.
The playground in my park in contract is heavily used but in need of repair / replacement. I think spending the money early on will go along way in terms of creating goodwill and justifying (along with brand new vinyl sign 
) a significant rent hike.
I’ve attached a pic. For those of you that have bid this out, what do you think I’m looking at?Uploading…
The playground in my park in contract is heavily used but in need of repair / replacement. I think spending the money early on will go along way in terms of creating goodwill and justifying (along with brand new vinyl sign ) a significant rent hike.
I’ve attached a pic. For those of you that have bid this out, what do you think I’m looking at?Uploading…