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Santa Clarita City Council Votes To Purchase The Ice Station

The Santa Clarita City Council voted unanimously to approve the city’s acquisition of The Ice Station in Valencia for a total of ($14,200,000).

The purchase includes the 4.39 acres of land and two-story, 92,751 square-foot building, furniture and fixtures.

“Primarily it would still be an ice rink but there could be additional uses,” said Frank Oviedo from the City Manager’s office. “Concerts, plays, roller-skating, dodgeball, arts and crafts, home and garden… Concerts, trade shows- there are covers for the ice to use it as something other than an ice rink… Not unlike what is used at the Staples Center.”

The acquisition has been months in the making since The Ice Station closed in March 2020 in the wake of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the aftermath of The Ice Station’s closure, the skating and hockey communities that had grown out of the facility rallied through social media and public shows of support in an attempt to “Save the Rink.”

Related: Residents Start Petition To Save Valencia Ice Station After Officials Announce Closure

“The Ice Station last year covered 750,000 to 1 million patrons in 1 year, which would be second to transit operations ridership (at just over 2 million),” added Oviedo. “The Ice Station would be the second largest service we’d provide as a city.”

A number of solutions were considered along the way, including private acquisition, a partnership with the Los Angeles Kings, purchasing the equipment and creating a new rink in a cheaper location, but ultimately a purchase by the City of Santa Clarita rose to the top as the best solution.

City of Santa Clarita officials have used the intermittent time since The Ice Station’s closure to conduct a number of analysis and their due diligence efforts, and their findings were positive enough to now move forward with the acquisition.

The primary use of the Ice Station would continue to be as a hub for ice skating, hockey and recreation skating, but in addition there would be occasions to supplement the use of the facility for economic development opportunities, according to City of Santa Clarita spokesperson Carrie Lujan.

“This potential acquisition would provide additional event space for local and regional events, provide local businesses and residents with a desired amenity, and develop a larger public facility to increase local hotel patronage and induce visitor spending, with the goal of boosting economic activity and generating local tax revenues to support the community,” Lujan previously wrote.

As of Tuesday there is no timeline for the official reopening of The Ice Station.

Ed. Note: David Melnarik contributed to this report.


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Santa Clarita City Council Votes To Purchase The Ice Station

7 comments

  1. For anyone that learned to skate in that rink and grew up inside that place this is amazing. Great news in some crazy times.

  2. Oh Hooray!!!!

  3. City employees are being laid off, but sure, go spend 14 million for an ice station during a pandemic.

  4. So thrilled! My son played there for years, then my grandson. We need more of this!!! Thank you Santa Clarita!
    Open, Open, Open!

  5. Hey excellent news for the Skating & Ice Hockey patrons in the Antelope Valley área as well. Lots of memories at the Ice Station for us long time Hockey commuters. Thank you Santa Clarita!

  6. So let me get this correct, we are socializing a privatized entity that can’t be used anyway due to social distancing limitations in the middle of a recession with record unemployment with tax-payer funds. This reeks of hypocrisy.

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About Wyatt Smith

Wyatt was born and raised in Santa Clarita. After graduating from Hart High School in 2012, he continued his studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he earned a degree in applied statistics. After a year and a half working in the digital advertising industry, Wyatt left his previous field of work to pursue his interest in writing.