PIQUA — A new inflatable action park geared toward kids is developing in the old movie theatre located in The Piqua Center, which was formerly known as the Miami Valley Centre Mall, located at 987 E. Ash St., Piqua,

“Hero Day Action Park will occupy a remarkable 21,000-square-feet,” said Brad Gossard, owner of Hero Day Action Park, of Lima. “The park is shaping up to be an incredible space where families and children can come together to celebrate and honor our everyday heroes.”

Hero Day Action Park will feature a ninja-style inflatable obstacle course, a dodge ball court and super bouncy basketball court set on an air track, as well as a low zip-line geared toward kids 10-12 years old. The Action Park will also have a snack bar and an upstairs mezzanine for parents wanting to relax while watching their children play. The mezzanine will contain a golf simulator and other arcade-style games that millennials would enjoy, as well as massage chairs in a comfortable space one could work on a computer, where they can view activities below.

“This is at least a $500,000 investment,” said Saul Zenkevicius, co-owner of the Piqua Center. “People don’t know or maybe don’t think anything is happening here (at The Piqua Center), but we want people to know, yes, things are happening.”

“By the time this is all done, I’m guessing this will be close to $1 million project,” Gossard added. “This is not just an investment for us. This is an investment for the community too, because as we grow the rest of this Center is going to grow too. And we have seen that before with our store in Lima that their performances from the corporate stores on the national levels, before we moved in, they were almost last in their market and now they are always in the top five. So we contribute — just because of the length of traffic. The parents drop their kids off to play, and they can only sit for a half hour and then start meandering around to the other stores.”

The Hero Day Action Park in Piqua will become the business’ flagship location, Gossard said. Currently, the first Hero Day Action Park is located in Lima. a third location will be established in the future in Findlay.

“We kind of brand ourselves — we have slogans all over the place — ‘America’s cleanest parks.’ That is our biggest thing. I am kind of a germ-a-phobe, so, anytime you have a bunch of kids in one area we want to disinfect,” Gossard said.

Zenkevicius also pointed out that Hero Day Action Park is family-owned and from this area, opposed to being a large corporate-owned-business. Gossard said they created their parks for this type of area and mid-sized market.

“We have been in this business since 2018, but we were always involved in the carnival amusement business, but with the rising troubles of being a mobile business, we decided to plant some roots and take everything that we have learned from being on the road — what we liked and didn’t like — and just brought it into one location. And all of these big cities were getting something like trampoline parks, (but) all these mid-markets, they need something too,” Gossard said.

He noted they decided to go with inflatables instead of trampolines in their parks because of the mound of evidence of injuries involved with trampolines. The park will likely be open for business in mid-November 2023.

“This will be available for birthday (parties), corporate events, and we also rent the place out for private events, as well,” said Gossard.

Hero Day Action Park will be open Wednesday to Sunday to the public, and available for private rentals on Mondays and Tuesdays. To learn more about Hero Day Action Park, visit its website at https://www.theheroday.com/