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	<img align="right" alt="" src="~url~/uploads/image/castle-ice-rink.jpg" style="margin: 10px 0px 10px 20px; float: right;" />Castle Ice Arena</h2>
<p>This project started with a small tired neighborhood grocery anchored shopping center.&nbsp; After acquisition we added two pad buildings and 7000 SF of small shops and modernized the existing building storefronts.&nbsp; The acquisition included a large piece of unused land.&nbsp; As we were unable to find an expanded grocer tenant, we chose to build a new Ice Arena on the parcel as a joint venture with a local Hockey Association.&nbsp; The Seattle market area hadn&#39;t had a new Ice Arena built in over 20 years and we had to go to the far reaches of Canada, Tennessee and Pennsylvania to find our consultant team.</p><p>An interesting environmental note about this project; beside the street in front of the arena was a ditch that became designated as a &quot;salmon stream&quot; by the local jurisdiction.&nbsp; This presented a list of development issues.&nbsp; A creative aspect of our total mitigation solution resulted in using excess ice from the Zamboni&nbsp; ice resurfacing machine.&nbsp; To meet environmental requirements, it was determined the left over ice could be deposited beside the stream as a means to cool the water thereby enhancing the salmon habitat!</p><p>For the first few years of operation we participated in the ownership and management of the business.&nbsp; While we have at times been partners with some of our tenants; I must say this was one of the more interesting business ventures we participated in.&nbsp; Some of the programs we had to manage were Junior Hockey, Adult Hockey, Figure Skating, Learn to Skate and Public Skating; all activities with different scheduling needs and revenue potential.&nbsp; Support services included a snack bar, skate shop, game room and skate rental.&nbsp; Staffing was a budgeting nightmare with many volunteers, youth and a few real professionals.&nbsp; I think an Ice Arena is a more complicated operation than a high end restaurant.</p>