On Monday night Stamford’s Zoning Board discussed a 35,000 sq ft indoor ice rink proposed at 50 Barry Place, which is close to the town line at Old Greenwich.
The property is 11.77 acres in the General Industrial District “M-G” that the applicant hopes to subdivide into Parcels A & B.
Parcel A would be 9+ acres.
The rink would go on Parcel B, which would be 2.6 acres.
The building on Parcel A was used by 150+ Conair employees until 2020. Parcel B features two warehouses.
The applicant is a contract purchaser of Parcel B.
Wings Managers, LLC is registered to Benoit Morin of Riverside, who participated in the Zoom meeting Monday night.
Wings rink would be available for youth ice hockey and youth figure skating clinics, educational programs, leagues and tournaments.
The attorney for the applicant, William Hennessey from Carmody, described the proposal as “a labor of love.”
The proposal was well received by the board.
Only one Stamford resident testified with a concern. Darling Calvillo from the adjacent R6 residential neighborhood said drivers run a stop sign by Barry Place. She said the rink would be busy, impacting her children who walk home from the bus stop. The board asked the applicant to follow up with Stamford Dept of Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TTP).
Attorney Hennessey listed several benefits of the rink, including that it was less noxious than other permitted uses in the M-G zone, wouldn’t be much bigger than the existing warehouse, and would provide some conservation space. Also it would feature landscaping and trees and improve stormwater quality.
Also, he said back-of-the-napkin math, he said Parcel B improved with an ice rink would increase tax revenue from about $45,000 a year to about $200,000.
“All these Conair buildings are vacant now,” Hennessey said. “This use is a good use. The Planning Board agrees.”
Zoning Board member, Rosanne McManus, who described herself as a 20 year hockey mom, said she was very excited about the proposal.
She said because the City of Stamford didn’t provide transportation for public high school hockey players to the city’s municipal rink, Terry Conners Rink, Westhill High School students for example, had just 20 minutes between the 2:05pm school dismissal to get to the rink and get dressed in time for the 2:30pm practice.
Terry Conners Rink supports three high school hockey teams.
“We’re in desperate need. I wish you were putting in two sheets,” she added.
“I don’t want Stamford forgotten. You’re very close to Old Greenwich,” said Zoning board member Jerry Bosak. “Our resources tend to get used and we’re not able to go to our neighbors and have the same courtesies.”
Mr. Morin said he’d been in discussions with a number of local groups about partnerships, and had met with Waterside School earlier in the day. Waterside is located a half mile from the proposed rink.
“They have an in-house hockey program, and to your point, they’ve had ice taken away from them. They’re on the top of our list in terms of partnering with them,” he said. “An advantage with them is they aren’t necessarily competing for prime ice after school and on weekends.”
“More ice means more availability for everyone,” Morin added. “It’s still early to figure out what the exact schedule will look like.”
“I’m sure I’ll be getting phone calls after today…We’ve been looking for prime ice time for many years, and there’s a reason why it doesn’t exist. The economics of the rink business are not attractive.”
– Benoit Morin
“We’d love to talk with Stamford Youth Hockey – if you’d like to put me in touch with them. We haven’t broadcast it until now,” he said. “We’re still looking to buy land.”
Mr. Bosak said he’d like special consideration on costs for ice time for Stamford high school hockey players.
“I just saw this enormous wonderful development in Chelsea Piers occur. …Stamford’s youth have not been able to access it because it has become so egregiously expensive,” Bosak said.
And while Stamford groups couldn’t afford Chelsea Piers, he noted out of town groups from as far as Westchester could.
“I’m sure I’ll be getting phone calls after today,” Mr. Morin said. “We’ve been looking for prime ice time for many years, and there’s a reason why it doesn’t exist. The economics of the rink business are not attractive.”
“I’m sure Darien, Stamford and Greenwich will have requests to get some of that ice time,” he added.
Zoning board chair David Stein said he though it might be possible to condition the approval of the rink on agreement about scheduling and users.
There was discussion about whether that was in the purview of the board.
Hennessey balked at a possible condition about scheduling and users.
“This is not put up by Hockey America to make a lot of money,” he said. “The more sheets of ice around town, the more opportunity there is for everybody.”
“I don’t know how you fabricate a condition – I don’t even know what we’re talking about – is it preferential time, preferential prices, is it transportation? …If Stamford has a problem, Stamford should begin to solve its problem. The Zoning board shouldn’t be solving a lack of ice for high school hockey teams.”
“You’re approving an as-of-right use,” he added.
Stamford Land Use Bureau Chief Ralph Blessing agreed with attorney Hennessey.
“I think it would be problematic to put a condition in there to say you cannot get your C/O if there’s not so many hours of ice time for certain groups,” Blessing said. “That’s outside of zoning.”
“I don’t agree,” Zoning board Chair Stein said. “Part of our job is to do what is best for the public of Stamford.”
Impacts on Greenwich
At Greenwich’s Hamill Rink, the largest purchaser of ice is the Greenwich Skating Club.
If they were to move to Wings Arena that might impact Hamill’s bottom line.
The men’s league already departed Hamill Rink for Stamford’s Twin Rinks where there are two sheets of ice, a restaurant, bar and shower facilities.
Hamill Rink is overdue for either a phased upgrade on its existing footprint or a full replacement.
It was built as an open air rink in the 1970s, and over time the town added walls and a roof, as well as bleachers and locker rooms. There are no shower facilities and the rink café is no longer in operation.
Greenwich’s rink user committee has been working with architectural and design firm SLAM.
SLAM’s renderings of a new 40,000+ sq ft rink next to the existing rink were presented to Greenwich P&Z in a pre-application in 2021.
The proposal also included a two-lane access road via Western Jr Hwy and a relocated/reconfigured Strazza ball field.
That plan was not well received. Greenwich P&Z chair Margarita Alban suggested to the applicant return with a new pre-application. She noted at the time that the proposal would involve an enormous amount of site disturbance.
Ironically SLAM worked with East Haven to on a phased renovation their municipal rink which had closed in 2019 after a leak was detected in the ice floor piping.
The renovation included replacing the ice rink’s original outdated and leaking system. The scope was later expanded to include renovations and upgrades to the facility’s front of house area, bathrooms, locker rooms and the purchase of a new electric ice surfacer.
The East Haven rink renovation cost about $5.75 million.
In Greenwich, the First Selectman’s proposed budget at the end of January budget for the new Hamill rink included $950K in 2024 for design and construction plans, and $21 million for construction in 2025.
The one area of agreement at Stamford Zoning Board was that the skating community was in shortage of ice time.
At the end of the meeting the applicant was asked to work on a landscape plan showing trees to be added or removed, a photometric plan.
As for colored panels on the building, the board didn’t see an issue. They noted it was the M-G zone and the building would still look like a warehouse anyway.
They said the applicant could work with staff on the color of the panels.
The applicant was asked to work with the Stamford Dept of Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TTP) on the issue raised by Ms Calvillo.
The item was continued to the next Zoning board meeting which is on 6:30 on March 13 on Zoom.
