By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
Last week, KYMN aired a news special about the Ice Arena Project, and this week during the news, we will be highlighting some of the important topics covered. You can find the full show here.
Today, we are answering the question of who will own and operate the Northfield Ice Arena? With several partners involved in the project, questions have been raised about who will own the arena. The land for the project is currently owned by the Northfield Hockey Association, which will then donate the land to the City of Northfield. The physical structure of the Ice Arena will be owned by the City of Northfield’s Economic Development Authority (EDA).
The Economic Development Authority is one of the City of Northfield’s boards that advises and works with the city. The Mayor and City Council appoint the members of the EDA and utilize city staff. Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig stated that they are using the EDA for the ice arena project because it is a common tool for cities to use:
“The City of Nothfied has actually used this tool in the past I believe, for the swimming pool project that they’ve done this financing before. So you have seen these done on. Park-type facilities like this. This is not an unusual thing done in other cities. This is pretty common because this is one of the debt tools that can be done.” – Ben Martig, Northfield City Administrator
Martig stated that the EDA will serve as the way for the city to borrow the money, but that facility will remain a public one controlled and operated by the City:
“They’re basically a conduit to issue the debt, and the city will be the owner of the land underneath. So it’s a little bit confusing, but we’ll own the land underneath as a city, and then they’ll be leasing that land during the life of the bond to the EDA, and then vice versa. The EDA is going to own the building and lease it to the city. So in the end, it’s kind of like a lease purchase arrangement where at the end of the bond term it all ends up back in the city of Northfields’ ultimate responsibility.” – Ben Martig, Northfield City Administrator
The City of Northfield will maintain the operations of the arena and lease agreements for the space. City Councilor Jessica Peterson-White stated that it was important the EDA was given this tool for economic development:
“I think it’s also important to note that it’s conceptually meaningful that the EDA has this tool. Building things in a community is good for the local economy. That’s why the state statute and our Charter say that this is something the EDA can do. The EDA exists to do economic development, and a large part of the role of EDA’s across the state is to provide funding mechanisms for people to build things.” – Jessica Peterson-White, Northfield City Councilor
Martig also stated that the Hockey Association and School District will pay ice rates for using the space and that they will not have a controlling stake in the arena.
