Department of Parks and Recreation
Arlington Ice Skating Center At Ballston
The Kettler Capitals IcePlex at Ballston Is Now Open!
A joint venture between the Washington Capitals and Arlington County to develop a community ice rink in Ballston was approved by the County’s Board in 2004. The facility, named the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, serves as the Capitals training facility and houses the team’s administrative offices, is open for community use year-round.
The structure was built atop the existing seven-story public parking garage adjacent to the Ballston Common Mall at the corner of North Glebe Road and North Randolph Street.
The facility is the first indoor ice rink inside the Capitol Beltway in Virginia and helps alleviate the ever-increasing demand for ice-time by hockey and skating groups in the region. The two ice-sheets offer an estimated 8,100 hours of ice-time per year and provides space for meetings, parties and other events. Estimates also forecast the project will provide many economic benefits to the County by attracting additional patrons to area restaurants and retail stores and generating additional taxes on the facility and revenue from its operation.
The 137,000-square-foot facility, which opened in November 2006, includes two indoor NHL-size ice rinks with seating for approximately 1,200, office space, media facilities and additional space for special events. The project also features a 20,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art training center for the Capitals with a large weight and fitness room, extensive athletic-training and medical facilities, spacious locker-room and lounge areas and a high-tech video room. The complex also houses the organization’s entire front-office staff.
As part of the agreement, Arlington County will be receiving 500 annual hours of ice time to program for use for community benefit.
The general contractor is D.C.-based Sigal Construction and the architect is Architecture, Inc. of Reston, Va.
For more information about hours of operation and programs offered at the facility, please visit the ice center web site at www.kettlercapitalsiceplex.com.
Features & Highlights
- Two official NHL size rinks (200’ X 85’)
- Seating for approximately 1000 on one rink
- Skate rental
- Eight locker rooms with showers
- Pro shop for hockey and figure skating
- Snack bar
- Warm viewing areas
- Direct access to Ballston Common Mall via main bank of elevators and new internal mall stairwell
- Year-round programming
- Public skating sessions
- Learn-to-skate programs
- Capitals practices open to public
- Additional parking for 190 vehicles on the new 8th level
- Dedicated elevator from street level to the new 8th level (located next to the garage’s exterior stairwell facing Glebe Road and in the area that will be a new public area developed by Arlington County Department of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources.)
- 20,000 sf for the Capitals corporate offices
- 20,000 sf of training center for the Capitals players, coaches and team staff
