When the Woodman’s Sports and Convention opens in Janesville in September, the lights will go out at the city’s current, one-sheet ice arena on Beloit Avenue — probably permanently.
City Manager Kevin Lahner tells Big Radio it is likely the city will tear down the old arena to see the property redeveloped rather than try to market it for adaptive reuse or continued use as an ice arena.
Lahner says the city has seen interest in the property and the ice arena itself by other parties, although he did not indicate who is interested, or for what reasons.
The Woodman’s Center is expected to open in early September, and when it does, its two ice sheets will become the new home of the Janesville Jets – a semipro developmental hockey club for youth prospects from all over North America. The second ice sheet would be used to host youth, high school, and league hockey, and possibly some collegiate hockey as well as figure skating.
That would strip the current Janesville Ice Arena of its main users. Lahner says that would make the old arena surplus property the city would not want to continue maintaining.
The Janesville Ice Arena falls within the boundaries of a larger city property that encompasses the nearby Lions Pond and the Rotary Botanical Gardens. The closest adjacent property is the 3-acre National Guard armory directly to the south.
A set of of 2012 upgrades to the existing ice arena, including new under-floor pipes and a snow-melt pit, are now 13 years old.
