DATE: Wednesday, July 16, 1997              TAG: 9707160482

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   42 lines

CHESAPEAKE PROJECT PROMOTED AS HOT IDEA FOR ICE ENTHUSIASTS NHL-SIZED ICE RINKS WOULD BE INCLUDED IN PLANNED COMPLEX NEAR GREENBRIER.

Donning hockey jerseys emblazoned with their names, city leaders officially on Tuesday welcomed representatives from a Canadian-based company with plans to bring a $6 million ice rink facility to the Greenbrier area.

For a crowd of reporters at the city manager's office, officials from Arc IceSports & Entertainment touted the project - two National Hockey League-sized ice sheets with spectator seating, sports-themed diner and shops - as a community center for Chesapeake and the region.

For the city, the ice rinks built near the Regal Cinemas multiplex theaters off Greenbrier Parkway will add a recreational opportunity to an area already booming with office, industry and retail development, said city manager John L. Pazour.

Chesapeake residents have been clamoring for more recreation near their homes, and Claire R. Askew, director of the Parks, Recreation and Building Maintenance Department, said she has already contacted Arc representatives about local programs.

``It means more leisure activities, even though it's a private facility,'' she said.

South Hampton Roads has only one other ice rink, Iceland in the Pembroke section of Virginia Beach. That facility is a former roller skating rink converted by hockey-enthusiast parents.

Typically, ice rinks draw patrons from a 30- to 40-mile radius, said George Parr, director of marketing and business development for Arc IceSports.

``It's in our best interests to have as many young skaters come in as possible,'' he said.

Parr said Arc, a subsidiary of Arc International Corp., which owns two ice facilities in Canada and plans another one in Rockville, Md., may open a second Hampton Roads rink.

The Greenbrier complex is expected to open in the fall of 1998. ILLUSTRATION: ARTIST'S RENDERING FROM KULLMAN INDUSTRIES

The planned Arc IceSports complex features two ice sheets with

spectator seating, a diner and shops.

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