Rinks in Triangle get new owner

N.Y. company buys 3 IceHouses

Credit problems have iced all kinds of business deals. But when the business is ice itself, the money appears to be gliding through.

At least that's the case with American Skating Entertainment Centers and three Triangle skating rinks. The growing Elmsford, N.Y., company negotiated a deal with lenders that enabled it to pay about $6 million for the Garner IceHouse, Cary IceHouse and the Factory IceHouse in Wake Forest, making it the Triangle's biggest rinkmaster.

More deals could be on the way.

"We liked what we saw: Good and very strong local brands," said Shane Coppola, chief executive of American Skating. "The sport of hockey is strong, youth hockey is strong, figure skating and recreational skating, also strong. And it posed a neat opportunity to buy three at once."

The company paid $1.9 million for the property associated with the Garner IceHouse at 103 New Rand Road. It signed a 10-year lease with the landlord at the Cary facility, off Buck Jones Road. And it signed a 50-year lease in Wake Forest, the Triangle's only two-rink facility, where the company also will manage indoor soccer and other activities at the Factory.

For customers, there will be few changes other than the rinks' uniformed name: Polar Ice House.

Hockey participation is up at the rinks, and recreational skating is flattening, said John Stock, a member of the investment groups that sold the rinks to American Skating.

The new owner came to Stock and his partners with an offer last winter and hopes to boost profitability by adding instructional hockey and skating programs, and by better coordinating ice time between the facilities.

The company will attempt the move in the face of tightening consumer spending and stiff competition from Raleigh's IcePlex, RecZone and the Triangle SportsPlex in Hillsborough.

"If you're doing your job right and creating entertainment and recreation value for kids and adults relative to the other options, we think this business can do well even in a downturn," Coppola said.

A slew of northern transplants, cheap real estate, expendable income and exposure to an NHL hockey team, the Carolina Hurricanes, are among the reasons why the Triangle is among the most-iced regions in the Southeast.

When rinks aren't competing with one another, they're competing with outdoor activities that thrive in the region's mild climate.

"To be successful in this business in the South, you have to be strategic, you have to be a good business person, you have to be a good marketer," Stock said.

American Skating doesn't want to be successful just in the South.

The deal leaves the company with 10 rinks under management or ownership -- enough for it to declare itself the country's biggest owner and operator of ice skating facilities. The deal was possible in part by $9.5 million in loans from T.D. Bank, debt that covers the purchase of two other properties in New York and Texas.

Coppola hopes to own or operate 100 facilities across the U.S. within 10 years.

The company has developed relationships with NHL teams in other markets, owning or operating rinks used by the L.A. Kings and Phoenix Coyotes. And the company may look to ally with the Hurricanes, perhaps hoping to lure the team away from its practice rink, the RecZone in Raleigh.

"Part of the thinking is if we can grow the sport of hockey and grow the sport of figure skating, then there's an opportunity to acquire another facility or build another facility," Coppola said. "But there's nothing imminent."