Ice rink cometh?
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published Sept. 27, 2006

The world’s fastest sport — ice hockey — may soon be coming to the Westshore.

Ohio Arenas, Inc. is expected to submit plans next month for a 100,000 square-foot ice rink facility on Viking Parkway, in an industrial-zoned section of Westlake. The complex would contain two pro-sized ice rinks, city officials said.

An American Hockey League franchise, owned by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and scheduled to start play at Quicken Loans Arena in the fall of 2007, may make the new ice rink its main practice facility.

If so, Westlake would join Berea, home of the Cleveland Browns practice facility, and Independence, where the Cavs plan to build a new practice complex, in boasting itself as the home of a professional sports team.

Mayor Dennis Clough said he thinks having a pro team supporting the operations of the ice rink will make it more economically feasible.

“We always thought the city of Westlake should have (an ice rink) but we never wanted to fund one,” Clough told West Life.

For years, Clough said, the city offered to lease land at its recreation center on Hilliard Boulevard to a dollar a year for any entity that would be willing to build an ice rink. But no serious offers materialized.

Contrary to a published report announcing Ohio Arenas’ plans, the city never promised to build an ice rink as part of the rec center, Clough said.

“We always felt there was a need for an ice rink in the city of Westlake, but because of the financial drain often associated with an ice rink, and the difficulty in managing one for a profit, the city of Westlake conducted feasibility studies,” the mayor said. “And those studies indicated that it would be best done by a private concern.”

Clough said it makes sense for the rink to be built in the city’s industrial area. Any rink built at the rec center would have to match its brick architectural style, which would be costly, the mayor said.

Westlake City Schools officials said the high school may field an ice hockey team once the rink is built.

Charles R. Marshall, CEO of Beacon Marshall Companies, which owns the property, wrote council requesting the conditional use permit for 11.5 acres in the city’s Beacon West Industrial Park.

An ordinance considering an application for a conditional use permit for an ice arena in the city’s industrial district was placed on first reading at Thursday evening’s City Council meeting and referred to the Planning Commission. A public hearing, at a date yet to be announced, must be held before the ordinance can be passed.