Rockford skateboard shop owner says its time for the next skater to fill the void

When Eric Neubauer opened Ground Floor Skateboards eight years ago, he was raising two children.

Now he’s raising six, seven if you count his adult stepson.

That family is behind the teacher/skateboard shop owner's decision to close the beloved downtown Rockford shop on Feb. 4.

Neubauer, 48, opened Ground Floor Skateboards in 2016 with his late wife, architect and community activist Alicia Neubauer, who died in 2020 from breast cancer. He remarried in 2022 and now has three stepdaughters and two stepsons along with his two boys.

“We’ve blended our families, and I don’t want to miss out on any of that,” he said.

In the early days of his business, Neubauer said he missed a lot. His sons were involved in extracurriculars activities he was rarely part of. He spent his days teaching school, and on weekends he worked at the shop.

“I can’t be there working all the time,” the Des Moines, Iowa, native said. “I am not going to miss out on this again like I did with my two boys. I got a second chance at stuff.”

Related: Downtown Rockford's Ground Floor Skateboards announces 'painful' decision to close

There was also no real money in the business. Everything went back into the operation. In fact, Neubauer has never taken a paycheck from Ground Floor Skateboards, and he’s been dipping into his own pocket to keep things afloat.

“I’ve always considered it a community service,” he said. “I just did it so kids could skateboard. But I just can’t do it anymore.”

Neubauer was a driving force behind Rockford’s Churchill Skate Park and the ramps at Davis Park. He also worked at the Rotation Station, a longtime skateboarding venue and shop in Rockford that closed in 2011.

When the Station closed, Neubauer was tapped to fill the void.

“Kids knew me from working there and were like, ‘You have to be the one who opens the next shop. You have to do it,’” he said.

With his wife keeping the numbers straight behind the scenes, Neubauer built the business into the city’s only independent skateboard shop that carried product lines from companies owned by skateboarders.

“From 2011 to (2016), there was no skater-owned shop in our area to buy gear until Ground Floor opened,” said Marcus Hayes, of Belvidere. “We had Zumiez at the mall but skaters don’t want to support faceless, soulless corporate entities. They want skater-owned shops. The heart of skateboarding is DIY—skaters supporting skaters.”

As Feb. 4 approaches, Neubauer is confident he made a big enough impact on the local scene for someone to step up and carry the torch with a venture of their own just as he did when the Station closed.

“You plant a seed and wait for it to sprout,” he said. “Hopefully that’s what I did with the shop.”

Jim Hagerty covers business, growth and development and other general news topics for the Rockford Register Star. Email him at jhagerty@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Ground Floor Skateboards owner says it's time to focus on his family