Northfield council moves ahead on $20.9 million ice arena project

With the support of all but one member, Northfield’s City Council has moved ahead with a $20.9 million (plus interest) proposal to build a brand new ice arena, after years of intense debate and concerns that the current arena had become obsolete and outlived its useful life.

While both the city of Dundas and the Northfield School Board formally endorsed the plan last month, funding from taxpayers in the city of Northfield will be the primary funding source, due to Northfield’s population and the limited ability of Northfield Public Schools to contribute.

To pay for the arena, the owner of a residential homestead in either Northfield or Dundas valued at $350,000 will pay $158 more in city taxes per year. The Northfield Public Schools levy will rise by $15 annually to cover the district’s share, which comes in at $250,000 annually for 20 years.

Other revenue to cover the project will include about $1 million from the sale of the existing ice arena to local developers interested in repurposing it as a recreational facility, as well as $2 million in anticipated fundraising through the Northfield Hockey Association.

Due to large increases in construction costs, the $20.9 million ice arena proposal is much more basic than 2018’s proposal for a 78,000-square-foot space “Civic Center,” which would have included two sheets of ice to go with multiple meeting and community rooms.

Northfield and Dundas voters rejected the proposed ice arena in that 2018 levy by a vote of 55% to 45%. Looking back on the campaign, City Administrator Ben Martig attributed the defeat in part to a “tight window” that made it a challenge to ensure that voters were informed.

“I felt overall that the campaign was strong and there was significant support from the project, even though it didn’t pass,” Martig said. “However, we also learned a lot of things from that and heard from the public.”

With the continued dilapidated state of the current arena, the Northfield Hockey Association, Northfield Public Schools and other stakeholders stayed at the table to keep pushing for a new arena, arguing that to simply fix up the old arena would be to “put good money after bad.”

Without a new arena, the NHA and Northfield Superintendent Matt Hillmann warned that the closure of the existing arena could lead to an exodus of hockey families from the district, potentially costing the District millions in per-pupil state financial aid.

Dundas’s City Council has been a staunch advocate for the arena project, which is expected to be built on Northfield Hockey Association-owned land near the Northfield-Dundas city line. Last month Dundas’s Council voted unanimously to commit its share of the project cost.

Dundas Mayor Glenn Switzer again visited the Northfield City Council to urge cost-concerned councilors to embrace the proposal, saying that the loss of public ice would leave a “large hole” in Northfield’s recreation opportunities and dissuade many families from moving to town.

“There are a lot of families in Dundas that made the choice to move to Dundas because of facilities such as an ice arena,” Switzer said. “It’s important to us that we have options for families that move into our area.”

Advocates said that a new arena would have a significant positive economic impact for Northfield, with Martig suggesting that the continued presence of public ice could draw in more than $1.5 million annually by drawing more visitors to town.

The Northfield Hockey Association’s Chris Kennelly said that the heavy time commitment required by hockey makes hockey parents ideal visitors to town. With so much down time after dropping off their kids at practice or a game, hockey parents become regular patrons of local restaurants, stores and entertainment facilities.

“There’s about a two and a half window every practice where a lot of families are going to shop, they’re going to get groceries, they’re going to support local entertainment facilities,” Kennelly said. “That’s something that needs to be taken into account.”

In March, Martig and City Engineer Dave Bennett came to the council with design proposals developed with Minneapolis-based JLG Architects. The larger proposal for a 52,000 square foot arena came in with an eye-watering price tag of $28 million.

With the city set to invest significantly in improvements to roads and parks over the next several years, councilors expressed deep concerns about projected sharp increases in debt and tax levies. As a result, the city quickly gravitated toward the smaller, 45,000-square-foot proposal.

While more compact, the new arena will still include key amenities such as a concession booth, pro shop, conference and meeting rooms and office space. With between 400 and 500 seats, Bennett said the new arena is expected to have a slightly larger capacity than the current one.

During the public comment section, a series of speakers came up and urged the council to take the plunge and approve the proposal, saying that they were more than willing to pony up for higher taxes to keep a key community asset — even if they weren’t going to directly benefit.

“We need to attract some younger people to the community, and I think this would be a great way to do that,” said local businessman Jeff Hasse. “We’re known as a retirement community, and to get some young people would be great.”

City Councilor Brad Ness, offered his full-throated endorsement of the project. Pushing aside claims that the arena would be expensive but only benefit a small share of the population, noting that many of the city’s parks could be similarly criticized.

“The issue has been brought up that a very small percentage of the population will use an arena; do we stop building parks, because the percentage is low? Do we stop building bike paths, because the percentage is low? Do we stop using pickleball courts, because the percentage is low?”

Councilor Kathleen Holmes said that she acknowledges that there remains significant opposition to the proposed arena. Nonetheless, Holmes said that the Council must move ahead with the project now, even if other projects may need to be delayed as a result.

“We can’t delay this one,” Holmes said. “This can has been kicked down the road so many times, it’s so dented you can’t even tell it’s a can anymore, and I won’t be another person to continue to kick it.”

Previously, Holmes expressed concerns that such a significant increase in the tax burden could jeopardize public support for Northfield Public Schools’s proposed facilities referendum. However, she said that the hearty endorsement the proposed arena has received from the Northfield School Board and Superintendent Hillmann helped to assuage her concerns.

“What helps me make the decision that I am tonight is the fact that the School Board and Superintendent Hillmann are so behind this project that they’re willing to potentially risk the referendum,” Holmes said.

While ultimately voting in favor of the project, Councilor Davin Sokup expressed extreme alarm about dramatic increases in Northfield’s tax levy. He cited a conversation with a hockey family who, while generally supportive of the project, fear that the trajectory of rising city taxes is forcing people to leave Northfield.

“I’m having a very hard time continuing to vote for projects that I know are pricing people out of this town who have been here for generations,” Sokup said. “I think we’re shifting who can live in Northfield in a way that is really problematic.”

Councilor George Zuccolotto ultimately cast the lone vote against the project. Recalling how his father, a longtime soccer coach, struggled to get dedicated soccer fields in Northfield, Zuccolotto expressed sympathy with hockey kids who wanted to see a new facility built.

That said, Zuccolotto said that he regards the ability to play hockey as something of a privilege - and the insistence of many hockey families that they will move if Northfield is left without public ice as even more privileged.

“It’s just hard when I’ve never had that kind of privilege to be like, ‘I’m going to move if there’s no soccer here,’” Zuccolotto asked. “It makes me question what kind of commitment these people have to Northfield.”

In part due to the direction of city taxes, Zuccolotto said that he’s had residents come to him in tears, unsure how they will be able to afford to continue to live in Northfield. He warned that the current trajectory of the city will leave the working class residents completely priced out.

“To put all of this on the taxpayers is hard when we have Bridge Square, CAC and 50North wanting a building, we have riverfront enhancement,” Zuccolotto said. “I think the kids are going to get their hockey rink, I think it’s going to be awesome, but I don’t know if they’ll be able to move back here.”