Jamestown Skate Products helped preserve the building at 207 Pine St., Jamestown, and at the same time breathed new life into a building many remember as Jones Tasty Baking. The specific award that the business received was the Small Business Award. This award is dedicated to organizations that have moved into historical commercial buildings, and have shown commitment to historical preservation through renovations and care for the building. JSP has been the perfect encapsulation of this, transforming a 1916 downtown building into a stable long-term business that has become a staple within the community.

Pete Scheira, Jamestown Skate Products owner, noted the many reasons behind the decision to move into this location on Pine Street. Scheira had previously operated the business out of a different rented location that was just around the corner from the current shop, beginning in 2007. Scheira stated that he had been no stranger to the location on Pine Street though, having frequently visited the location as a child when it was Jones Tasty Baking.

“I remember coming here on field trips and getting donuts with my mom and stuff like that. So I remember the layout of the building and how it would lend itself pretty well to what I wanted, to expand the store,” said Scheira. “We just had a retail store before, but I knew it was going to make a huge difference when we had an indoor skate facility. So when I saw that the building was up for sale, I made the call.”

A long time resident of the area, Scheira grew up in Jamestown. Scheira would attend Jamestown High School, and even go on to graduate from Jamestown Community College. After this time Scheira briefly lived in California. It was here that Scheira worked for a skating and snowboarding shop that had demonstrated immense success. Scheira noted the inspiration that was taken from this work experience, having stated that the business’s owner taught many lessons in this realm of sales. Upon returning to the area shortly before opening JSP, Scheira would realize that a long time friend that owned a skate shop was attempting to get out of the business. In order to ensure that somebody in the area continued to serve the skating population, Scheira officially decided to take on the task himself.

Pictured is one of the two skate parks at Jamestown Skate Product.

“They had it for at least a decade, and then I think they were just ready to move on,” said Scheira. “So we worked out a deal. I knew that they’d created a skate community here, and I knew that someone needed to continue it, and I guess that person was me.”

Scheira stated that the business would officially purchase, and move into, this new location on Pine Street in 2009. Though a fantastic space for such a business, there was lots of work to do before it was ready for customers. So many uses of the building throughout the years had left the building significantly altered from what it once was. Scheira would be the component to change this, beginning to transform the space into a unique store to serve the city. Scheira and friends would build two indoor skateparks in the facility, with on doubling as an event space. On top of this, the organization does in-house skateboard production, has a bus for bringing youth to Holiday Valley, serves seasonal ice-cream, and has even attracted a sustainable living store to the space directly next door.

“It’s our home, we live upstairs, we have a two-story indoor skate facility, manufacturing facility, ice cream shop, a natural food store. A lot of really cool things have spawned from just being a skate facility,” said Scheira.