Brewer mill ice rink to open this fall

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BREWER – A local engineering firm has been hired to draw the final design of a multimillion-dollar ice rink for The Mill at Penobscot Landing.

Construction is expected to start in July and be completed in November, the developer said Friday.

Civil Engineering Services Inc. of Brewer, which prepared and presented preliminary plans for the rink to the Brewer Planning Board in June, was chosen by Minnesota-based developer Michael Stern to complete the designs.

“We’re hoping to break ground during the middle to late July,” Stern said in a phone interview Friday from his office in Plymouth, Minn.

“The plan is still to have the ice ready by November 1, but it’s pretty unlikely the services will be ready by November 1. For example, there may not be locker rooms ready and there won’t be concession ready.

“The ice itself will be ready for use, for the hockey teams and high school teams, by November 1,” he said.

The Mill arena plans include an Olympic-size ice rink, along with a warm room, concessions, a sports shop, multiple locker rooms and seating for nearly 700 spectators.

The $3.5 million rink is the first construction planned for the first phase of Stern’s Mill redevelopment project at the defunct Eastern Fine Paper Co. mill on South Main Street. The property is now owned by the city.

The site for the arena lies to the right, just after a person enters the 41-acre property. It will be between the former employee parking lot and the property line next to Oak Street. A portion of the employee parking lot will be used temporarily for the new arena’s parking.

Public skating, with rentals, and the other amenities should be complete and operational by Dec. 1, Stern added.

“It’s a fast track but we believe we’ll be ready,” he said.

The time frame to finish designs, get city building permits and construct the arena is short because of local need, Stern said, who is using his own money to fund the project.

“The key question isn’t when we start, it’s when we finish,” said Jim Lacadie, vice president of Civil Engineering Services.

The arena is a 44,800-square-foot building that has been designed to expand to include a second regulation sheet of ice. “Basically, that’s a little over an acre in size,” Lacadie said Thursday.

CES is not new to designing ice arenas in Maine. The John Millar Civic Center in Houlton was designed by CES after the former ice arena collapsed in the 1998 ice storm.

The ice arena’s 280-by-160-foot steel building will be constructed to house seating for 690, but eventually will be expanded with seating for up to 1,500, the developer said.

“The building is being constructed off site and will be bought in and built on site,” Stern said.

The machinery to make the ice will be inside the building, which will reduce noise associated with the machines. The ice-making unit has a dual purpose and will be used to provide heat for the building.

“What we’re looking at is a system that is fitted with heat recovery equipment,” Lacadie said.

The design also will include the use of radiant heat in the warm room and the locker rooms, he said.

Roy Boothby, president of Brewer Youth Hockey, which pays more than $70,000 in ice fees each year, said that any extra ice in the region is a good thing. He said the organization is already making arrangements for the upcoming season.

“Brewer Youth Hockey will play next year,” Boothby said Tuesday. “We’ll utilize as many facilities in the area as we need to, and many of those arrangements have been made.”

Between 250 to 300 area youth, ages 6 through 14, played last year under the Brewer Youth Hockey League banner, each paying approximately $495 to participate. The funds pay for ice time, uniforms, referees, insurance and other costs.

Typically, the youth league’s competitive teams hit the ice in September and recreational skating starts in October.

The city took over the former mill last year as part of the sales agreement with Eastern Fine’s parent company and formed South Brewer Redevelopment LLC to manage the site.

Stern has been working with SBR and the city to create a multiuse destination point at the South Main Street location that includes a performing arts stage, upscale retail and restaurant space, an open market, housing, a marina, a movie theater, and the ice rink.

The first phase of The Mill project is expected cost $18 million. Construction on the main portion of the project is expected to begin in October, with retailers taking over spaces as early as April or May 2006 and opening some time next summer.

“We want to start winterizing pretty soon so we can actually prepare the building for winter construction,” Stern said. “All of that is still going forward.”

Stern has also offered to move City Hall to the defunct mill’s historic administration building.

The city has held a public hearing on the move and has developed a cost analysis that estimates the move would cost the city $1.1 million.