$60m ice skating bonanza
Peter Mickelburough, The Melbourne Herald-Sun
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006

OICE skating is to become Melbourne's hottest pastime under a $60 million plan to build an ice sports centre at Docklands.

The centre will feature twin, full-size ice rinks. the Herald Sun has learned. It will also be home to Australia's Olympic Winter Institute and the centre of our future Winter Olympic campaigns.

It will host national and international ice hockey, ice skating, curling and speed skating events, with seating for hundreds of spectators.

It will be open to the public for recreational skating.

The Bracks Government last week approved the plans of a private consortium led by ING Real Estate Development Australia, Ice Sports Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee's Olympic Winter Institute.

The consortium is yet to secure finance to build the centre, but has used private funding to pay designers here and in Canada to draw up detailed plans.

The State Government promised a world-class ice sports centre after the golden success of Alisa Camplin and Steven Bradbury at the Winter Olympics four years ago.

Premier Steve Bracks' $10 million commitment to develop a National Ice Sports Centre before the 2002 state election had raised expectations the complex would be finished at least a year ahead of the current Winter Olympics in Turin.

But the plans were put on hold for almost two years after the election, with rink operators, developers, financiers, designers and builders not briefed on Government proposals until March 2004.

"We have now been through the selection process and have agreed on a site and developer, so it's now up to the private sector to make this work," Sports Minister Justin Madden said yesterday.

"The centre will fill the gap in ice sports facilities in Melbourne and establish Victoria as the national leader in winter sports.

"We are very excited about this project and we're looking forward to confirmation from the developer of private sector backing, with the development of the centre contingent upon the preferred developer securing investment finance."

Mr Madden said he had asked his department to monitor the developer's progress.

The rinks will be built on top of a 1300-space multi-level car park as part of the next stage of Waterfront City, which is being developed at Docklands by ING REDA as a retail and entertainment precinct.

As Australia's only world-class ice sports venue, the centre will be home to the Olympic Winter Institute.

Ice Sports Australia director Andrew Shelton said the centre would offer something Victoria had never had and could not be compared with the "ice rink in a tin shed" of the past.

He expected construction to begin this year, once a financier was found.

Detailed plans are now being drawn up by Cox Architects and Arup Engineers - who both worked on the MCG redevelopment - and Stadium Consultants International, a Toronto-based firm specialising in ice sports arenas.