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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Gondola ridership fuels hopes

Riverfront Park SkyRide passengers watch as water thunders over the Spokane Falls and under the Monroe Street Bridge on Friday. Riverfront Park Manager Craig Butz reported to the Park Board that 16,000 people took the ride in May, raising hopes that revenue could beat projections. (Christopher Anderson / The Spokesman-Review)
By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com(509) 459-5454
Riverfront Park SkyRide passengers watch as water thunders over the Spokane Falls and under the Monroe Street Bridge on Friday. Riverfront Park Manager Craig Butz reported to the Park Board that 16,000 people took the ride in May, raising hopes that revenue could beat projections. (Christopher Anderson / The Spokesman-Review)

Riverfront Park’s new gondola SkyRide is proving to be a popular attraction and could be a moneymaker for the city parks and recreation department, if ridership continues at its current pace.

Park Manager Craig Butz reported to the Park Board earlier this month that 16,000 riders boarded the lilac-colored cabins in May for a descent from the park into the Spokane River gorge at the base of the lower Spokane Falls.

Nearly 43,000 riders have taken the plunge this year through the end of May, which is almost 70 percent of a budgeted projection of 60,000 riders for the first full year of SkyRide operations, through Dec. 31.

“I hope it keeps going this well,” said Rebecca Madany, finance manager for the parks department. A strong runoff this spring has kept the falls full and added to the attraction, she said. “The river is just awesome, and that’s part of it.”

The $2.5 million ride opened in September but was temporarily shut down late last fall pending a state permit to operate it.

The Park Board financed the installation by selling $2 million in revenue bonds and borrowing $500,000 from the park cumulative reserve, pledging income off the ride for repayment.

Ridership projections for 2006 were based on the number of people who rode the park’s former gondola in 2002, the last year it operated. In 2002, the gondola averaged 350 riders a day. So far this year, the new gondola has carried 513 passengers a day.

The routes of the old gondola and the new SkyRide both pass beneath the Monroe Street Bridge and, during high water, through the spray of the lower falls. The gondola was shut down in 2002 for safety reasons during reconstruction of the bridge. While it was closed, parks officials studied the option for installing a new, more modern ride.

Gross revenue through May stood at $226,000, compared with annual budgeted revenue of $315,000, according to Butz’s report.

Payments on the borrowing are about $310,000. Since the year is not even half over, it appears the SkyRide will make more money for the parks department than anticipated this year.

“We can choose to pay down the debt faster than we originally anticipated,” Madany said.

Officials last year said their financial projections were conservative because they wanted to make sure the ride would not be a strain on the department’s operating budget. But they acknowledged that a new ride would likely attract more riders than the former gondola.

Parks Director Mike Stone, in a separate report to the Park Board, said a building permit has been issued for a new roof and pergola over the SkyRide ticket booth.