WESLEY CHAPEL — In the 88-degree heat in May, Gordon Zimmerman wants people to think forward to an indoor climate hovering at 55 degrees, ice pad temperatures peaking at 26 and the cool sounds of cash registers ringing.
Zimmerman is managing partner of ZMitch LLC, the company developing the $20 million Florida Hospital Center Ice complex under construction northeast of Interstate 75 and State Road 56. Wednesday morning, the company previewed the 150,500-square-foot building for about 180 members of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, part of a pitch for corporate sponsors and business partners.
Florida Hospital already signed up, buying the naming rights under a 10-year deal to provide education classes, performance training and other services. The Tampa Bay Lightning is on board, too, and view the building — the largest ice arena in the Southeast — as a key component to the team's five-year goal of doubling the number of youth hockey players in the region.
Companies can buy the naming rights to each of four full-sized rinks and a mini-rink for children or put their logos in the ice in the defensive and neutral zones. Advertising space also is available on the dasher boards surrounding the ice, on video viewing screens, on three Zamboni ice-resurfacing machines, even on the targets — known as curling houses — for the planned corporate curling league.
Much of that was still left to the imagination Wednesday. While the metal roof, pillars and most of the exterior walls are up, mounds of dirt and spools of polyurethane piping dominate the interior. Each rink requires 13.5 miles of the underground piping for heating and cooling. Workers have poured cement on two of the rinks. After all the prep work is done, it will take about six weeks to make the ice, Zimmerman said.
A soft opening is planned for mid September, with a grand opening at the end of October. Besides the ice rinks, the complex will include a turf track for sprinting, a dance studio, a pro shop, a food court, a full-service restaurant, five rooms for corporate meetings or birthday parties, and a hockey skills area for people to test their shooting or goaltending prowess.
One of the rinks will double as a convertible, multipurpose sports floor for basketball, lacrosse, roller hockey and other activities. The facility is projected to draw up to 2 million visitors annually, about 40 percent of whom will come from outside the Tampa Bay region.
"Restaurants, rental companies, hotels, you name it," Zimmerman said. "The whole community is going to get a benefit."
Proof of the pending tourism boost to Pasco County is right next door to the ice complex. Construction crews are building an 85-room Holiday Inn Express on the neighboring property.