A crowd of more than 100 people gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of Watertown’s Prairie Lakes Ice Arena on Wednesday.
With a donation of $3.5 million, Prairie Lakes Healthcare System helped make the $36 million ice arena possible.
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“We are so excited as your health care system to partner with the city to bring this project over the edge,” said Robb Peterson, chairman of the Prairie Lakes Healthcare System board. “Part of the obligation as your health care system is to enhance people’s lives and to make sure we are doing things that drive a healthy and active lifestyle.”
With the donation, Prairie Lakes will have the naming rights for the area for 35 years. The health care provider will also service as the official sports medicine provider for athletes using arena.
City Manager Amanda Mack and Mayor Ried Holien thanked the community and the Build it Now fundraising committee for their efforts in raising the $10 million needed to keep the project within the city's $25.5 million budget commitment.
The arena will include two sheets of ice. The main sheet of ice will feature 1,500 seats, and the second sheet will have 250 bleacher-style seats. It's being built just west of 31st Street Southeast in a new development north of Willow Creek where there's room for a potential third sheet of ice in the future.
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“We are doing some new things in this facility that we have never done before for a facility this size,” said Tom Betti with 292 Design. “Think Xcel Energy Center and shrink it down a little bit.”
XCel Energy Center is the home of the Minnesota Wild in the Twin Cities.
The ice arena has been a dream for Watertown for more 20 years. Holien took a moment to thank the community, the city council and all involved for their efforts in getting the facility built.
“We really felt this long-standing desire just to get this done. It has been hanging over the community for decades now,” Holien said. “What kind of city were we going to be? Are we going to be the city that looks toward the future and finds a way to get something done? Or are we going to get stuck finding the problems?”
Two of those problems have been supply chain issues and inflation. But the project can proceed without delay thanks to the city moving quickly in the early procurement of the precast wall panels and structural steel.
The walls are first to be constructed and will be finished by the end of the year. All internal components will be completed throughout winter and into the spring. The outside finishing touches will be done by next summer, and Prairie Lakes Ice Arena should be open by October 2023.
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The groundbreaking occurred on a bright, 88-degree afternoon on the bare, rocky plot where the arena will be built. But Betti reminded the crowd that ice is in the future.
“It’s kind of warm out today,” he said. “In a little over a year, we will be standing right here, and it will be 50 degrees in the bleachers. On the ice, it’s going to be 17 degrees. You all be ready. It’s going to be really cool!”