Puck drops on new $34.5 million hockey hub in Rosemont
From young mites learning how to handle a stick and puck to professional athletes brushing up on their skills, a $34.5 million, 103,000-square-foot indoor arena in Rosemont is the new center ice in the suburbs for hockey enthusiasts.
Officials from the village, developer Nicholas & Associates and Chicago Wolves formally dropped the puck Wednesday on the two-story, twin-sheet Rosemont Ice Arena, which is now open at 7115 Barry St., just north of the Allstate Arena.
The building houses new practice quarters for the Wolves, who have long played games across the street but sought a closer locale than Hoffman Estates for pregame prep. The new facility boasts a sauna, steam room, cold plunge, workout room, film room and players’ lounge — what team Vice Chairman/Governor Wendell Young described as “world class.”
“No one in the American Hockey League, where the Chicago Wolves play, have a facility like this,” said Young, the team’s legendary former goaltender who later became coach and now front-office executive. “All our players and staff love coming to work every day. … Everything about this facility is first class.”
The rink is also poised to become a destination for suburban hockey families in search of scarce ice time.
Youth hockey clubs who have inked ice user agreements with the Nicholas subsidiary that manages the facility include the Chicago Mission, North Shore Warhawks, Northwest Chargers and Chicago Edge Skating Academy. High school teams skating there include Elmhurst’s York and Niles’ Notre Dame College Prep.
During the day, the Wolves are the primary user of the facility, with some planned learn-to-skate clinics for young kids at the same time. Hockey clubs are expected to get the prime ice time after school and during evenings, followed by adult hockey leagues late at night.
About 60% of ice time will utilized by girls, including the Warhawks, which is a girls organization, and the Mission’s girls team.
“It means a lot to that little boy or little girl that really stokes a fire in them — they’re going to be the next one that works themselves to the NHL or PWHL,” said developer Nick Papanicholas Jr. “It’s just not a sheet of ice. It’s actually something that’s a passion.”
Papanicholas is behind three other hockey rinks in the suburbs: a 86,261-square-foot, two-rink complex now under construction at Meacham and Biesterfield roads in Elk Grove Village; the 63,000-square-foot, twin-sheet Glacier Ice Arena he recently acquired in Vernon Hills; and the 110,000-square-foot, triple-sheet Mount Prospect Ice Arena at Nicholas Sportsplex.
The last facility was Papanicholas and his family’s foray into the ice arena business nearly a decade ago, born out of a desire to find a closer place for his kids’ club hockey team to play.
He said there’s still a demand from suburban youth hockey organizations who want places to play closer to home. For instance, the Mission decided to move to the new Rosemont and Elk Grove rinks from the Fifth Third Arena on Chicago’s West Side, he noted.
Papanicholas is eyeing other areas to build his next ice arena, but said the facilities are difficult to develop — short of a public-private partnership. He inked deals with municipal officials in Rosemont and Elk Grove to build and manage those facilities.
In a September 2024 contract, Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens and trustees agreed to pay the Nicholas construction firm $34.5 million to build what is a village-owned building.
Under a separate December 2024 agreement, Nicholas is paying the village an annual licensing fee to operate the facility. The firm must pay a total of $8 million at 4% interest over a 20-year period for ice maintenance equipment purchased for the arena, under terms of the deal.
The hockey clubs’ ice time fees provide a revenue stream to pay back Nicholas’ obligation to the village, as does the Hatty’s Club sports bar and restaurant the company is operating on the second floor.
The building also includes a grab-and-go market on the second floor and an Illinois Bone & Joint Institute clinic on the first floor.
With its proximity to O’Hare International Airport and the Jane Addams Tollway, officials envision the venue becoming a hub for regional and national hockey tournaments, and say it will host public open skate, too.