Chicago Wolves score new office and practice digs in Rosemont extension deal

The Chicago Wolves, the anchor tenant at Rosemont’s Allstate Arena for decades, will continue playing at the village-owned stadium for another five years.

As part of a newly signed license agreement between the village and the American Hockey League affiliate, the Wolves will pay a $400,000 annual fee to the village for use of the arena and two other facilities in the Northwest suburb. In addition, the team will share revenue with the village on parking fees and sponsorship deals.

Under the arrangement, the Wolves plan to relocate their front offices from Glenview to a municipal-owned building in Rosemont’s Parkway Bank Park entertainment district. Renovations are underway at 5490 Park Place — the site of a Harley-Davidson dealership between 2019 and 2024 — where the Wolves will occupy the top floor and a Chubby Cattle BBQ restaurant will operate on the ground level.

Both tenants of the 20,000-square-foot brick building are set to move in by the spring, officials said.

“We’re happy to have them,” Mayor Brad Stephens said.

The Wolves already have been skating at their new practice digs across the street from the Allstate Arena for a year. The $34.5 million, 103,000-square-foot Rosemont Ice Arena boasts two regulation NHL sheets of ice, a sauna, steam room, cold plunge, workout room, film room and players’ lounge.

During the indoor arena’s dedication last November, Wolves Vice Chairman/Governor Wendell Young described it as “world class.”

“No one in the American Hockey League, where the Chicago Wolves play, (has) a facility like this,” Young said. “All our players and staff love coming to work every day. … Everything about this facility is first class.”

Though the Wolves have long played games across the street — then-Mayor Donald E. Stephens dropped the first puck in 1994 at what was then known as the Rosemont Horizon — the team had been seeking practice quarters closer than the Scott R. Triphahn Community Center and Ice Arena in Hoffman Estates.

At one time, team officials explored moving their games to the Sears Centre Arena — known today as the Now Arena — in Hoffman Estates. But they eventually signed an extension in Rosemont, citing the long-term working relationship with Rosemont officials, growth of the town, and its central location within the Chicago area, according to a 2014 Daily Herald story.

cplacek@dailyherald.com