Under contract: Ice Park buyer unleashes cash to save skating
Write a letter to the editor
A signed contract offers fresh hope that the Charlottesville Ice Park won’t have to close after all.FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER
In news sure to inspire hope in skaters devastated by talk of its imminent closure, the Charlottesville Ice Park has just been placed under a sales contract to an ice-minded buyer, according to listing agent Bob Kahn.
“The buyer and seller have worked exceptionally hard to save this community asset,” says Kahn, who, though noting that the contract was signed on June 22, declines to name the buyer. Kahn also stresses that a “contingent contract” is no guarantee of the Ice Park’s survival but rather “a glimmer of hope that that outcome may be achievable.”
Realtor Roger Voisinet, a hockey aficionado who earlier tried to purchase the Ice Park, says he is in contact with this buyer and is working to help raise the remaining approximately $300,000 he says the deal requires to be finalized.
“I don’t think he would have given a deposit if he didn’t think he could close,” says Voisinet of the unnamed buyer.
Ice Park owners Bruce and Roberta Williamson could not immediately be reached for comment.
..Story developing…
Why not start a curling league?? This is a burgeoning game, and is one of the most fascinating new games at the Olympics. It has teamwork, skill, tactics, and above all, high drama. (Remember, they are called the Olympic GAMES, not the Olympic Sports.) Charlottesville specializes in odd sports and games, lacrosse and field hockey. A training center for curling learners would pack the place. Go for it.
I will Curl
I’m in for the curling. I think a bunch of us old hippies can do that. Used to watch it on Wide World of Sports back in the 60s.
It’s my understanding that the likely buyer is indeed interested in adding a curling league.
Perhaps we could roll old hippies down the ice instead of the curling stones? I’d sign up for that…
I always liked this place. It is so cool to ice skate.
I heard it’s going to be a flea market.
it should be turned into a night club
That would be cool…a night club…or at least put a retractable floor above the ice so you could use it as an event space if you wanted without ice…and then an event place with ice if you wanted!!
A roller rink with a weekend flea market and late night movies would be a great tri-fecta for downtown.
Oh, K, don’t forget with the flea market, roller rink and late-night movies, they’ll have to offer Moon Pies and RC Cola in the vending machines. Just what downtown needs!
Everybody on that end of the mall knows who the buyer is. He’ll be 10x as hard to work with, and he’ll sink the ship in two years. There’s nothing worse than a “visionary” with no clear sight, or ability to pull it off. I suppose something is better than nothing, but this place is still doomed.
Dentist– hmm, “visionary” who is hard to work with, tends to bail on projects, and owns a nearby building… Ollie Kuttner? Only other person I could think of with a local history somewhat like that is Silverman (Amtrack station development and parking lot fiasco).
Maybe it could be a home rink for the Charlottesville Derby Dames. Those ladies deserve one.
Nightclub? Don’t we have enough stinkin’ nightclubs in this town? Do we need more noisy drunks than we already have?
mmmmm derby girls on ice
I just hope something happens that is positive for the mall. The last year when I go down its a bunch of kids and bums. If the ice park is empty along with halsey minor’s work, I wont have plans to go downtown again.
lets leave it open at night and let the homeless sleep there
They shoud turn it into a regional morgue and charge rent to other cities!
I heard it’s going to be demolished and turned into a lake.
Turning into something suitable for a roller rink would actually be extremely expensive, assuming that it would have to be polished concrete.
Curling is easy to do. You could easily put 3 sets of paint for the lines for curling on the ice, and not have it look too crazy and interfere with the hockey lines.
No offense, but roller skate somewhere else. We want ice hockey, and figure skating. There are youth players and skaters who have dedicated alot of their time building their skills in both respects, and it would be more devistating for Charlottesville to go without ice, than it would be beneficial to put concrete down where the ice surface is. Not to mention extremely expensive.
Ice can be successful in Charlottesville as a more multi-purpose facility. Due to operational reasons when it was first built, it makes multi-purpose a little more difficult but still extremely possible.
So a “deus ex machina” has emerged in the form of the real estate world’s always wished for “greater fool”. In this case someone with money who is ready and willing to throw it away in pursuit of a Quixotic desire. If he has deep enough pockets, his lack of sound fiscal judgment will allow several years of subsidized skating until he too throws in the towel. That he will lose money is a given, but maybe he can write it off as a donation to charity. Maybe he knows he’ll lose money and he’s just ready to do so just to “help the community” be a better “world class city”.