Although the Florida Panthers’ season is on ice, plans to build South Florida’s first double ice-skating rink are heating up.
Toronto native Jeff Campol, the mastermind behind DOUBLERINK Arena of Coral Springs, says it’s an idea that’s long overdue.
“In Ontario there’s one skating rink for every 14,000 people or 661 rinks,” said Campol, who moved from Toronto to Coral Springs in 1991. “For the 1.3 million people in Broward, there’s two rinks – Sunrise Ice Skating Center and GoldCoast Ice Arena in Pompano. The market is wide open.”
After 21/2 years, Campol, a 39-year-old entrepreneur, said he has raised enough money and is preparing to finalize a contract with the city of Coral Springs.
The $3.8 million project will be part of the 180-acre regional park, which already contains the city’s tennis and aquatics centers. City officials are negotiating with other firms interested in adding a driving range, miniature golf course, and five-field softball complex.
Under the agreements, the companies will lease land from the city and get a percentage of each facility’s gross revenue.
Assistant City Manager Mike Levinson said city officials decided to hire private vendors because the city does not have the $8 million to $9 million needed for the facilities before the year 2000.
“This way, the private sector owns, operates and finances, and we create an inventory within Coral Springs where there’s something for everyone,” Levinson said.
He said there are plans to float a $2 million bond to help pay for roads, landscaping and utility lines.
Campol’s rink will be close to the park’s Sample Road entrance, just east of the Sawgrass Expressway.
“I looked at Pembroke Pines and Kendall but I kept coming back to Coral Springs,” said Campol, who is married with two young children. “Every cul-de-sac I rode through I’d see the kids playing street hockey or Rollerblading.
“We plan on developing a myriad of youth hockey programs the same way the city offers kids’ T-ball and goes on through Little League.”
The proposed two-level, 60,000-square-foot facility will contain designated spaces for birthday parties, a video room, a pro shop, skate rental area, and two NHL regulation (200 by 85 feet) ice skating rinks divided by a central court foyer that leads to the dressing rooms.
On the second floor or mezzanine, there will a limited amount of bleacher seats for viewing, a food court and a sports bar.
“The double-rink concept is new here, but we’re not reinventing the wheel,” Campol said. “It gives me complete flexibility to have 500 kids skating for recreation on a Saturday morning on one rink, and an adult or youth hockey league game going on the other.”
Though Campol said he hoped to break ground by the end of the year, he probably won’t be able to until the spring.
The city won’t sign a contract with Campol or anyone else until it works out a wetlands mitigation plan, Levinson said.
The city recently discovered that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must approve the plan, in addition to the county and the South Florida Water Management District. That will delay the park’s development by about three months, but builders should be able to break ground in March, Levinson said.
“It’s just something we’ve got to work through,” he said. “There will be a delay because we didn’t account for this.”
Campol is not the only one to be planning his entrance into the ice skating market.
Hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky, in conjunction with Toronto-based development firm Stadium Consultants International, is planning to build four to five similar double-rink facilities throughout the state. The first “Wayne Gretzky Iceland” is destined for a Broward or Palm Beach county address that is yet to be determined.
Campol said he isn’t worried.
“If I’ve gauged right, there’s enough to go around,” Campol said. “Gretzky’s will foster inter-league play.”
