A nonprofit organization that has operated the District’s only indoor ice rink and put free skates on thousands of children has accused the city of bungling plans to replace the Southeast venue just weeks before construction is supposed to begin.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena said in a blistering statement this week that the city’s Department of General Services (DGS) has come up with an unsuitable proposal that shrank the arena in size and ballooned its cost. Officials in the nonprofit organization said they now oppose plans to demolish the nearly 50-year-old rink and start construction on a new one next month.
Friends board member Patrice Willoughby also accused the city of failing to involve them in the project’s plans despite a written agreement pledging such collaboration. She said in an interview that since planning for the new skating arena began in 2013, her group has had to pry information about the project from the mayor’s office, the D.C. Council, and DGS, the agency charged with building and maintaining public facilities in the District.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
“Every time we’ve gotten information back we know that the planning’s been sideways,” said Willoughby a District resident and lobbyist who has served on the nonprofit’s board for about eight years. “We’re frustrated on behalf of the kids and the families. This should be a no brainer.”
An ice skating nonprofit provided a sanctuary for low-income kids. Now its success could be pushing them out.
Instead, the city has blueprints for a facility that offers only one ice sheet, instead of two, and several unnecessary features that have driven the facility’s cost to $37.5 million — or, on a square-foot basis, about what a luxury high rise would cost, Willoughby said. She also said the city has not provided budget documents that explain why project’s estimate has increased from an estimated $23.1 million in June 2021.
“We know of no recreational ice rink in the U.S. that has a cost per square foot at this level,” Willoughby said. The estimated time frame for construction expanded, too.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Keith A. Anderson, DGS’s director, wasn’t available Friday to comment on the project and was the only person authorized to do so, an agency spokeswoman said. Other city officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter, acknowledged that coronavirus-related disruptions have added to the project’s estimated cost but said city planners have been working with the contractor to bring them down. They also expressed their frustration with the nonprofit’s criticism weeks before construction was to get underway.
“We disagree with their assessment,” a top DGS official said.
The agency also denied that the Friends have been cut out of the city’s planning. City officials said the nonprofit’s representatives have exchanged emails with city planners, attended biweekly meetings and been present at public forums concerning the rink’s plans.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
“They literally sit in on meetings with us,” an official said, adding that it’s been clear since 2020 that only one ice sheet would be built. Although city officials also understand the importance of building an arena with two ice rinks so that the Friends could balance revenue with free programs, the current $30 million would not allow for both skating areas. But city officials also said the proposed design would allow an extra sheet of ice to be built in the future.
The official said the city’s commitment to the project is best evidenced by its plans to move ahead even though the nonprofit fell short on its pledge to raise $5 million in private funds and at least $3 million before groundbreaking. (The nonprofit has raised $1.3 million.) But the advocacy’s group’s stated opposition could hamper the project.
“I can’t say at this moment what’s going to happen,” the city official said.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
The National Park Service built the skating arena in 1976 as a bicentennial gift to the city but also let it fall into a state of disrepair. Skating enthusiasts came together to save the place and formed the nonprofit.
Since leasing the venue in 1996, the Friends nonprofit has partnered with city schools, offered free skating lessons, and hosted programs such as Kids On Ice and Special Olympics speed skating events. The Fort Dupont Cannons, the country’s oldest minority youth hockey club, call its ice home.
Though the rink serves the entire city, its location has been important for large numbers of children and families east of the Anacostia River. More than 60 percent of the children in its programs are Black, and more than half are girls, Willoughby said.
“It is the best representation of Washington, D.C., that you will see: people from all walks of life — kids, families — and you’ve got the richest and poorest parents in the stands together watching their children interacting," Willoughby said. "It really represents what we love about Washington, D.C.”