THRILLING AND CHILLING: The Kingsbridge Armory will become the world’s largest ice-skating complex, housing nine rinks on two levels. (
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The Bronx is about to become very cool.
What will be the world’s largest ice-skating complex is slated for the borough’s massive Kingsbridge Armory under a long-awaited deal announced yesterday by Mayor Bloomberg and a team of developers.
After more than two years of speculation about the fate of the armory, Bloomberg revealed plans to convert the vacant fortress into a nine-rink, 750,000-square-foot sports Mecca to be known as the Kingsbridge National Ice Center.
Five rinks will be built on the sprawling main floor. Four others are slated for two platforms about 40 feet above ground level.
The opening is set for 2018, and will create 260 full-time jobs.
If the $275 million project doesn’t get sidetracked, it will mark the end of nearly two decades of frustrating attempts to find a full-time tenant for the hulking armory.
Bloomberg, who in 2009 failed to convince community leaders to accept a $310 million shopping mall at Kingsbridge, said the ice complex was actually a better fit.
“It’s probably true that the mall would have provided more jobs,” he said. “But I’m not so sure you couldn’t make a case this will provide more of a service to the community, particularly to our kids.”
Kevin Parker, the ice center’s developer, teamed up with high-profile partners, Rangers legend Mark Messier and 2002 Olympic figure-skating gold-medal winner Sarah Hughes, for yesterday’s announcement.
The ice center will include at least 50,000 square feet of space for a community center and will be open to free after-school sports and academic programs.
Parker’s group will pay the city 5 percent of gross revenues, or just over $1 million a year. It will also have an option to buy the property at fair-market value after two years.
Parker, who spent 30 years on Wall Street dismissed the possibility that there wouldn’t be much demand for the new rinks, which are projected to attract more than 2 million visitors a year.
“The national average is one rink per 100,000 people. New York City has one rink per 1.2 million people. So there is a real unmet need for ice in New York City. I predict we will be sold out before we even open.”