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TOWNSHIP TO PURCHASE ICE PALACE
13-ACRE SITE WILL BE HOME TO RECREATION CENTER, OTHER AMENITIES
By Eric San Juan
 | | --Photo By Eric San Juan The Ice Palace, Chambers Bridge Road, may soon be in township hands and home to a recreation center. |
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It will be here. It will be there. It will be somewhere. "It" is the long-discussed township recreation center.
And that proposed recreation once again appears to have a new home.
On Tuesday, township officials gathered in front of the Ice Palace, Chambers Bridge Road, to announce that a deal had been reached for Brick Township to purchase the building and all 13.34 acres on which it sits. The Ice Palace would become a townshipowned facility, with potential for a sweeping array of other recreation and community services on site.
The site has long been on the township's wish list, said Council President Stephen Acropolis, but purchase negotiations never went anywhere.
Then one day, current owner Joan Dwulet, whose family has long owned the property, decided that she'd sell. The price? About $5.2 million.
"Since 1992, there has always been the mindset that this site would be the best place for a township recreation center," Acropolis said. "We just kept asking and asking. It's like asking a girl to marry you 18 times and she finally says yes … This is the culmination of about 15 years worth of work."
At the moment, only a verbal agreement exists for the purchase plan. Officials expect to finalize the details and get the deal in black and white over the next seven to 10 weeks.
Had the township not purchased the property, Acropolis said, it is not unlikely that a developer would have made the purchase. In place of a recreation center residents may have instead seen a strip mall or housing project.
According to Tara Paxton, township planner, the purchase could mean more than just a new recreation center on Chambers Bridge Road. It could mean changes along the entire corridor.
"It is going to serve as the catalyst for the redesign of this corridor," Paxton said. "This site can serve as the example of what you can do with old commercial sites."
Among the most noteworthy plans for the site would be an access road stretching from the rear of the property to the intersection of Brick Blvd. and Route 70. Specifics regarding the road are not yet set in stone, several conceptual plans have been drafted.
All told, the site encompasses just over 13 acres. In addition to the ice rink, there are concession facilities, soccer fields and other open space stretching from Chambers Bridge Road back to Forge Pond.
The township will take control of the site, managing the ice rink, running the recreation department and Senior Outreach Program, and developing other uses.
Key to the plan, Acropolis said, is the bottom line. While Brick Township will pay $5.2 million for the property, he said those costs will be offset by a number of other revenue streams.
Officials say costs attached to a townshiprun ice rink could also be offset by rink fees - township hockey clubs already pay the facility about $300,000 a year in rink fees - including saving the school district money on rink fees paid to the current owner.
"The board of education in the past has paid for teams to play here. Now we hope to be able to reduce some of those payments. It's been part of the shared services we've talked about," Acropolis said.
Moving the Brick Recreation Department's operations across the road from Civic Plaza will also bring along about $45,000 annually in grant money. In addition, proceeds from the sale of Civic Plaza and the abandoned Foodtown site on Route 70 will also offset the cost of purchasing the Ice Palace. Acropolis also said he believes Congressman Chris Smith may be able to secure federal money for the township's Senior Outreach Service, which would move from its current Adamston Road location to the Ice Palace property.
The site is next door to the township's Housing Authority, further consolidating township programs and facilities.
"We may be running in the black right now, but we're not sure," Acropolis said. But, he said, "the last thing we want to do is spend a ton of money on something that will not return money to the town."
The "not sure" part troubles Mayor Dan Kelly, who issued a statement on Tuesday regarding the purchase plan.
"What will the total cost of the recreation center be?" asked Kelly, who did not attend a press conference on Tuesday announcing the purchase. "I cannot and will not support any recreation center unless it pays for itself. As of today, we only know the purchase price. We do not know the dollar amount of the costs to repair the existing ice rink, or the estimates of how much it will cost to construct a full-service recreation complex. The only numbers on public record are upwards of $30 million."
What will residents want to see on the property? That, township officials said, is something that will be taken into consideration. Scott Pezarras, Brick's business administrator, said officials would seek public input throughout the process of purchasing and revitalizing the site.
"The vision for this site is something we … felt strongly about," Pezarras said. "It could be as much as the people want it to be or it could be what you see now. We want to involve the public."
"We have plans but those plans are not set in stone because a project of this size should not be decided by eight or nine people," he added, "it should be decided by the community."
Kelly said he'd like to see public involvement taken a step or two beyond hearing resident input and forming committees. He'd like to put the matter to a vote.
"Because this purchase and any future upgrades will require a substantial investment from the taxpayers, I believe that the most appropriate course of action is to put a referendum on this year's ballot," Kelly said in a written statement. "Let's see what the people have to say about this idea. Let their decision guide the mayor who is elected in November. We should not rush into a halfformulated plan, especially during a heated election campaign."
Acropolis accused the mayor of injecting politics into what should be a positive step for the entire community.
Kelly and Acropolis are squaring off on Election Day in this year's mayoral election.
This week, the township approved a bond issuance to fund the purchase.
Members of the public on hand for the vote gave scattered applause to the project. However, resident Joseph Lamb said he thought the Ice Palace was not the best place for the project, considering the traffic on Chambers Bridge Road.
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