DATE: Thursday, June 19, 1997               TAG: 9706190440

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   78 lines

ICE SKATING CENTER PLANNED 70,000-SQUARE-FOOT COMPLEX TO HAVE 2 NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE-SIZE RINGS

A Canada-based entertainment company announced plans Wednesday to build a $6 million ice skating facility in the city's Greenbrier section.

The 70,000-square-foot complex will offer two National Hockey League-size rinks, each with seating for 500 spectators, along with a diner, arcade, party room, retail space and other amenities.

It will be only the second U.S. project for Toronto-based ARC International Corp., whose subsidiary, ARC IceSports & Entertainment, is building the complex. In May, the company announced it will build a skating complex in Rockville, Md.

``We've been looking at the site for a while and it's finally going to happen,'' said Tom Newman, director of development for ARC IceSports. Construction is expected to begin by January 1998 and take eight months to complete.

According to Stewart Lewack, a spokesman for ARC, the company is seeking to expand into the U.S. market because the number of ice rinks across the nation has not kept up with the growing popularity of ice hockey and figure skating.

``The region is really underdeveloped in terms of ice rink facilities,'' Lewack said.

The announcement is the latest in a line of attempts to bring an NHL-size public rink to South Hampton Roads.

The Chesapeake site, off Interstate 64 near Regal Cinemas multiplex theaters, was bought by ARC when another rink proposal fell through, Newman said.

Allan B. Harvie Jr., a former Richmond Renegades hockey team owner, bought 3.5 acres and even broke ground, but never completed the project. Harvie owns the Ice Palace in Yorktown and also operated Starship Ice, which was a temporary rink at the Oceanfront.

Harvie, who said he built a rink outside the area, sold his 3.5 acres to ARC. The remaining 3.5 acres were purchased from Prudential Insurance, according to ARC.

South Hampton Roads' only ice rink, Iceland, is a former roller-skating rink in the Pembroke area of Virginia Beach converted 15 years ago by a group of hockey-enthusiast parents. Iceland's manager was unavailable for comment, but the rink reports that its facilities are frequently booked from morning until night.

At least one other proposal to build a rink in South Hampton Roads failed recently. A bid from former Hampton Roads Admirals hockey player Patrick Cavanagh and his company, Chilled Ponds, to build a rink in Virginia Beach dissolved after neighbors protested construction of an apartment complex that was tied to the project.

Cavanagh expects the Chesapeake rink to do well and still plans to build a rink of his own - although perhaps not in Hampton Roads.

Admirals owners Mark Garcea and Page Johnson also have expressed interest in building ice rinks in Norfolk, Chesapeake or Virginia Beach but have released no formal plans.

Garcea, majority owner of the Admirals, said he and Johnson have been distracted from their rink plans by ongoing negotiations to extend their team's lease at Norfolk's Scope, where the Admirals play and practice. In the meantime, Garcea said, he may consider holding training camp at the Greenbrier site or at another Hampton Roads site not yet named but in the works by a Charlottesville group.

``We were told some time ago (the Greenbrier rink) would probably happen and we're all for it,'' he said. ``It's way overdue. The area has needed additional rinks for a long time. The more rinks there are in the area, the better it is for hockey and for the Admirals.''

ARC International operates three rink complexes in the Toronto area. It also has substantial stakes in companies that manufacture motion-picture projection and specialty entertainment-lighting equipment, broad-band equipment for the cable television industry, and ice rink equipment and supplies.

ARC IceSports was formed when ARC International bought a McLean, Va.-based consulting company called Blue Line Development, which originally was interested in the Chesapeake site abandoned by Harvie. MEMO: Staff writer Harry Minium contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Photos

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