By Matt Wiley
Gordie Zimmerman sees a cold, icy future ahead for Wesley Chapel. That is, if his company’s plan to build the largest ice hockey facility in the Tampa Bay area comes to fruition.
During a February 19 presentation to the Pasco County Tourist Development Council (TDC), Zimmerman unveiled Tampa-based Z Mitch, LLC’s plan to construct a 150,500-sq.-ft. ice hockey facility on more than 12 acres of land adjacent to I-75 at the S.R. 56 interchange in the Cypress Creek Development of Regional Impact (DRI). The complex would border the parking lot of American Consulting Engineers at the end of Cypress Ridge Blvd.
The four-pad (ice rink) facility is expected to cost about $20-million and one pad will be Olympic-sized, allowing for multiple uses besides hockey, including winter Paralympic Games training.
“(The TDC) seemed really excited for the project,” Zimmerman says. “We’re moving right along with it.”
Zimmerman says that the new facility will be twice the size of the closest similar ice hockey complex, the Brandon Ice Sports Forum — located just more than 20 miles to the south off I-75 —which has two sheets of ice and is where most local teams of all skill levels have to fight for ice time. Among these are the Tampa Bay Lightning training camp, the University of South Florida Ice Bulls and local high schools, such as Wiregrass Ranch High, where Zimmerman is the coach, as well as travel teams, recreational leagues and public skating hours.
Developing ice facilities is nothing new for Zimmerman, who says that he also helped open the Brandon complex in 1997.
“I’ve been looking into (building another facility) for quite some time now,” Zimmerman explains. “Wesley Chapel has presented itself as a better area to build one. The I-75 corridor is very enticing.”
Like the planned Wesley Chapel facility, the Brandon Ice Sports Forum, Ellenton Ice Sports Complex and Estero’s Germain Arena (which has an ice arena and two additional rinks) all also are located just off I-75.
“Hockey is growing,” Zimmerman says. “There isn’t enough ice in Florida to meet the demand for it.”
In addition to ice hockey, the new facility also will be capable of hosting events for figure and speed skating and the Paralympic game of sled hockey, as well as conventions, graduations and concerts, as one pad will be built in a multi-purpose area, where it can easily be taken down.
Zimmerman estimates that 1.5-2 million people potentially could use the facility on an annual basis, whether for ice sports or other activities. Currently, he says, most ice hockey players in the area leave Pasco County to play on the nearest ice in Brandon or even Ellenton and estimates that, if the new facility is built, more than 40 percent of participants will come from outside of Pasco.
As an added economic boon, Zimmerman says that the facility also will create more than 20 full- and part-time jobs, as well as additional jobs for the facility’s construction.
“(This facility) looks like nothing but a positive feature for Pasco County and Wesley Chapel,” says Pasco Tourism director Ed Caum. “If the county lands this project, we’ll be part of the ‘Ice 75’ corridor along with Brandon and Ellenton.”
Caum says that he hopes future winter Olympic athletes can train at the facility, assuming everything goes well with the project’s development.
“It looks like a ‘Go’ situation,” Caum says. “It’s pretty much all on the developer to secure the land. The County will be supportive in any way that it can.”
For more information about Z Mitch, LLC, please visit ZMitch.com. Stay with the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News for continuing coverage of this exciting development.
No comment yet, add your voice below!