City Hall considers selling the downtown Wichita Ice Center after years of complaints
After months of complaints about the Wichita Ice Center, City Hall is offering the facility for sale.
As the current contract for Ice Center management by Genesis Health Clubs nears its end, a city request for proposals has been issued titled “Sale OR Professional Management for Wichita Ice Center.”
Even Mayor Brandon Whipple was among those surprised that city staff was entertaining offers from private companies to buy the Ice Center, rather than just managing it under continued city ownership.
“What are we doing? We’re selling the ice arena?” Whipple said when contacted by a reporter. “My understanding was go out for potential management contracts. I know we’ve gotten some complaints about the current management . . . so I think going out there and seeing what the management contract market is was smart, but I was not under the impression that we were looking to sell it.”
Whipple said he would need to have many questions answered before he could possibly support selling the Ice Center, at 505 W. Maple, directly across the street from the city’s new $75 million Riverfront Stadium baseball park.
“It’s a taxpayer-funded asset,” Whipple said. “It’s used by folks in this city who, if it’s privatized, might not be able to afford to use it.”
City Manager Robert Layton said the sale offer is more testing the waters than a concerted effort to sell the ice skating center. The request for proposals was developed in conjunction with the major users of the facility, including hockey, figure skating and speed skating enthusiasts.
“I don’t know that we’re going to get any offers in that regard and the user group would be part of the review committee to determine if there was an offer, whether or not the city would do that,” Layton said. “I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to get proposals for the management of the facility.”
If someone were to buy the Ice Center, it would come with a long list of conditions, chief among them that it continue to be open to the public and offer hourly rates, Layton said.
Under Genesis’ current management, the two rinks are open to the public while Genesis operates a primarily membership-based health club on the second floor.
In August of last year, hockey player and referee John Ford circulated an online petition calling for an end to Genesis management of the Ice Center that got more than 2,700 signatures.
The major complaint was maintenance: blown-out lights, worn out and smudged glass and dasher boards around the rinks, player bench areas with rotted floors, play clocks and scoreboards that either have been unusable for years or break down during games.
Ford now serves on the user group that’s advising the city on the request for proposals for the Ice Center as a representative of the Wichita Adult Hockey League. The group also has representatives from the local youth hockey, referees, figure skating and speed skating associations, he said.
Ford said he’s not troubled that the proposal request invites bids on selling the center and the users supported putting that contingency in it.
“I’m not opposed to it,” he said. “I was in shock when I first heard it, too.”
But after extensive talks with Layton and Parks Director Troy Houtman, “They made a good point. Just because it’s an option doesn’t mean that’s the option we go with and it would be remiss to say we’re not even going to consider it. “
Genesis would appear to be at least near the top of the list of companies that might bid to buy the center, which would give Genesis ownership of the rinks and the health club. Rodney Steven, the president and owner of Genesis, could not be reached for comment.
Steven and his brother Brandon co-own the Wichita Thunder minor league hockey team, which practices at the center.
Houtman said two potential bidders showed up to a pre-proposal meeting and walk-through of the facility — Genesis and another company he would not disclose.
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s all that’s interested because I would say, other than Genesis, there’s dozens of other companies outside the state that showed interest in being part of managing the ice rink,” Houtman said.
Despite his criticism of Steven management of the ice facility, Ford said he could accept Genesis as a buyer if the conditions were right.
“The RFP was something that we worked on refining to make sure that it was something that we wanted as a user group,” Ford said. “Not to exclude the Stevens, but they would definitely have to have a very good proposal in buying this facility, just given that they have the last 10 or 11 years of managing the facility and it wasn’t managed to the best of the community’s satisfaction.”
The RFP didn’t go to the Park Board or the City Council for approval.
Layton said he did discuss it with “all the electeds” before it went out.
Council member Jeff Blubaugh, who represents the district that includes the Ice Center, said Layton informed him in a one-on-one meeting that there would be a sale option in the RFP, but added “I didn’t realize the timing that it was already out there.”
“I didn’t know about it until people started asking me questions,” he said. “Years ago I asked about this and the city manager told me we that we could not sell the facility because it was provided by a federal grant. I was surprised a little bit to hear that (the center was up for sale) because I was always told we couldn’t sell it.”
The Ice Center’s sits on 5.7 acres and includes a large advertising billboard visible from Kellogg and a parking lot with 532 spaces.
The city is looking for a buyer who “offers the highest value and most beneficial future use of the property.” The purchase would be subject to a list of restrictive covenants.
The Ice Center cost approximately $8.3 million to build in 1996 and the city has put about $1 million worth of improvements into it since, according to the proposal document.
The most recent tax appraisal by Sedgwick County lists the value of the property at $5.9 million.
The Genesis contract expires in January. Houtman said the city wants to have a plan in place to make sure it continues operating after that.
The reason for the prospective sale, Houtman said, was “a huge suggestion and outcry from the stakeholders that use it who really want to see an opportunity to see what other vendors would be interested in operating the ice rink.”
Alternatively, the city could approve a new management agreement and lease the ice center to a private operator, who’s expected to meet the criteria outlined in 49 bullet points included in the RFP, including a provision that would require any health clubs to be open to the public.
While Genesis is primarily a membership operation, the company’s clubs are open to non-members for a day rate of $15.
The request for proposals also specifies that a private manager would have to maintain the physical appearance of the facility, pay all operating costs and take care of interior and exterior maintenance.
“What we’re looking for is all options,” Houtman said. “And, ultimately, what’s going to be the best scenario for the stakeholders in regards to the ice rink operations.
“Ultimately, we’re looking for the best system that’s going to benefit our stakeholders,” Houtman said. They’ve been intimately, very much involved. When we put out the RFP, it was reviewed by our stakeholders, so it’s really kind of in their hands. It’s really being driven by them because this is what they want.”
“Stakeholders” include ice hockey users, figure skaters and representatives of ice sports organizations at the rink, Houtman said. No elected officials were involved in drafting the RFP, he said.
Houtman said the city’s selection committee, which has not been chosen, will include representatives of the user groups and a member of the Park Board.
The committee will interview interested parties in late October and November. A city council vote would follow in December.
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 4:09 AM.
