How Palm Beach Gardens is growing: $40 million ice rink complex coming to Plant Drive Park

PALM BEACH GARDENS — An indoor ice rink is set for construction at Plant Drive Park, replacing its skate park and basketball and pickleball courts and most notably, a softball field that honors a Palm Beach Gardens High School standout murdered in 2007.

The City Council unanimously gave the greenlight on Thursday, April 4, for the Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation to build a 100,000-square-foot building with two full-sized ice rinks, a restaurant, a sports bar and medical space at the park nestled between Palm Beach Gardens High and Interstate 95.

The facility is expected to cost $40 million — for which the nonprofit is entirely responsible — and take two years to build, with the goal of opening in summer 2026. Its lease would last for 40 years and charge the foundation $10 a year.

It also includes a revenue sharing program, with the foundation paying $75,000 per year to the city two to five years after the facility's start, then increasing: $100,000 per year between six and 12 years, $125,000 per year between 13 and 18 years, $150,000 per year between 19 and 30 years and $200,000 from year 31 and beyond.

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The agreement comes after a former plan by the foundation failed when the project did not meet budget benchmarks in 2022. Michael Winter, its founder, said he had difficulty garnering support during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The original plan was for a 230,000-square-foot facility for hockey, rock climbing, volleyball and basketball at Gardens North County District Park, something that Winter said proved to be “too ambitious.”

City records list that Plant Drive Park “has been a marginal recreational facility for the city and has attracted malcontents who engage in illegal activities,” including vandalism.

Council member Bert Premuroso said he has fond memories of walking over to Plant Drive Park to play baseball when he was young in the 1970s. He added that he met his wife at the park 40 years ago.

“It’s not an easy decision to move this forward for me, but I am supportive,” Premuroso said. “It’s a beautiful area, but people will go to this center. If it’s built right, I think it will be very successful.”

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Plant Drive Park's softball field serves as a memorial to Amanda Buckley, a Palm Beach Gardens High standout player who was found murdered near Juno Beach in 2007.

The park features a sign over the scoreboard that says “Amanda Buckley Memorial Field of Dreams," a plaque and bricks engraved in her honor.

Charlotte Presensky, the city’s leisure services administrator, acknowledged the importance of honoring the memorial. She said the city’s staff “is already thinking about what we do to make these things whole."

“We have spoken to (the high school athletic director and the Palm Beach Gardens Youth Athletic Association) about the ability to honor the memorial, but we’re not there yet,” said Presensky during the meeting. “This is just the first step.”

Presensky said she knew Buckley and will be respectful of the memorial to do it the “right way.” Premuroso agreed.

“We will be supportive of anything that needs to be done to relocate anything related to the Buckley memorial," he said.

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Some residents say hockey too expensive for kids who use Plant Drive Park

While the council was unanimous in its support for the project, residents had questions about it.

Mike Evans, whose daughter, a Palm Beach Gardens High sophomore, plays softball at Plant Drive Park, said during the meeting that “selling the park to a developer is a bad idea.” He said the park is used by many and its basketball courts are often filled with players.

Evans noted that the area around the high school is among the poorest communities in the city.

“(Hockey) is not affordable for the kids in that area,” Evans said. “Where are they going to go? This needs to be done in a respectful way.”

After the meeting, Evans said he wasn’t surprised by the vote of approval and he isn’t completely against the project.

However, he wants the Amanda Buckley memorial to move to Palm Beach Gardens High and for the school’s softball facilities to be upgraded, saying their field is “a mess.”

Evans said he noticed that baseball facilities in the city are well-equipped, while softball is often neglected.

“It’s frustrating that they look at girls' sports and don’t care,” Evans said.

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Gardens ice rink complex to host hockey, figure skating, curling

Wayne Gretzky, perhaps the greatest player in National Hockey League history and a northern Palm Beach County homeowner, plans to use the new rinks to host the Gretzky Hockey School, founded in 2014 by him and his son, Ty.

The sports complex will support a variety of ice sports, from youth hockey, figure skating, public skating and adult leagues to curling and sled hockey. The foundation said in a prepared statement that it hopes to add a third NHL-sized ice rink at some point.

The project also comes with corporate and private partners, including Palm Beach Gardens-based Carrier; Larry Robbins and the Robbins Family Foundation; the Florida Panthers NHL team; the Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach; and NFP insurance brokerage.

In terms of financing, the group has the backing of Ziegler, a privately held investment bank, according to Winter.

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Foundation director calls Palm Beach Gardens ice rink complex 'passion project'

Winter skated for the first time at 2 years old, thanks to his parents who opened up a rink in the suburbs of St. Louis, through a nonprofit they started called “Affton Athletic Association.” It now runs three rinks in the St. Louis area.

Now he has four young boys of his own who all play hockey. He wants to pay the gift of a nearby ice rink forward.

“This endeavor has been a passion project since inception,” said Winter, who launched the foundation in 2017. “What personally drives me is knowing that thousands of kids are going to benefit.”

Winter, who lives in unincorporated northern Palm Beach County, plans to offer discounted public skating rates to Palm Beach Gardens residents. He expects to hire 70 to 100 people to work at the facility, whether the positions are part or full-time.

The ice rink will be the only facility of its kind in northern Palm Beach County, said Winter, who noted that interest in playing hockey has soared since the Florida Panthers played in the Stanley Cup Final in 2023.

The only other ice rinks in Palm Beach County are Palm Beach Skate Zone at 8125 Lake Worth Road in suburban Lake Worth Beach, and Palm Beach Ice Works at 1590 North Florida Mango Road near West Palm Beach.

“The only constraint we have is we need ice rinks,” Winter said. “As a young dad, I can attest that there is a dearth of places to take kids to (play sports) in an indoor, safe setting.”

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Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach Gardens OKs $40M ice rink complex at Plant Drive Park