City officials got their first look at the Northwest Arena‘s $4.5 million, three-story addition as part of the Jamestown City Council work session Monday.
Northwest Arena Board Co-President Kristy Zabrodsky said when the arena first opened nearly 20 years ago, it was evident that the community wanted the arena to be a community center, “One thing really jumped out that we needed to change in the building and that was that we had so many kids in the building. Whether they were here because their siblings were on the ice and they were sitting in the bleachers. Whether they were here because we were having a hockey tournament. Whether they were here because their parents were involved in some other program, they had to be entertained.”
Zabrodsky said as a non-profit, the board looked at how to create something that allows the Arena to be sustainable. She said the National Comedy Center will be paying rent for space on the first floor as well as rent for their new, consolidated offices on the 3rd floor, “And another key piece of that is being able to generate revenue from all the spaces in our building. But not just to generate revenue, generate it so that it helps support what we’re doing so that it provides programming that allows people to experience things in the building that makes us to become a true community center.”
Zabrodsky said The Zone will be free play space for children that includes STEAM educational learning activities. Arena officials are currently working on finding funding to complete the build out of The Zone and hope to have it opened by Summer 2022.
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