A rendering of the proposed 89,000-square-foot, two-rink ice hockey facility in Chesterfield.County Documents)
Several years after opening a small facility in Powhatan, local ice hockey advocate Fred Festa is considering opening a facility with two rinks in Chesterfield.
Chesterfield Sports Enterprises, a company with ties to Fiesta, plans to build an 89,000-square-foot facility that will feature two NHL-sized ice hockey rinks when complete.
The facility would be built at 2300 Jenit Place, southwest of the interchange of Route 288 and Powhite Parkway in the western part of the county.
General Manager Ryan Winfree said the ice rink facility is expected to host youth and adult hockey programs and clinics, figure skating and youth hockey tournaments. It will seat 800 spectators and have 10 locker rooms.
Ryan Winfrey
“We are confident we can fill this facility and operate it profitably, to a high standard and in a state-of-the-art setting,” Winfrey said.
The facility will be built in two phases. The first phase is expected to be completed in May 2026 and will include construction of a 46,000-square-foot building that will contain the first ice sheet, 400 spectator seats, and part of the planned locker rooms. The remainder of the facility, including the second ice rink and the remaining planned area, will be constructed in the second phase.
Winfrey declined to comment on the estimated total cost of the facility, other than to say it is expected to be a “multimillion-dollar” investment.
Minneapolis-based JLG Architects has been appointed to design the facility. EDC is the general contractor on the project, and Balzer and Associates is the engineer.
Festa's group is under contract to purchase the project site. The currently forested parcel is about 9 acres owned by Waterford-Knox LLC. Its most recent assessed value is about $578,000, according to online county records.
Winfrey said he plans to begin clearing the site and site work later this year.
The facility doesn't yet have an official name, and Winfrey said she plans to sell naming rights to the facility.
A floor plan of the first phase of construction, including the original ice rink and spectator seating.Courtesy of Ryan Winfrey)
The Chesterfield project is intended to enhance activities at the Powhatan Ice Den, a 14,000-square-foot facility Fiesta owns in Powhatan County. The Fiesta group also sees the Chesterfield project as a step toward its ultimate goal of attracting a professional hockey team to the area.
“We want to have a professional team here. That's Fred's biggest goal,” said Winfree, general manager of the Powhatan facility and Fiesta's son-in-law. “We've learned so much and grown so much that we wanted to get bigger and keep growing.”
Festa, a former chemical industry executive, was the owner of the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, a team in the AA East Coast Hockey League, from 2012 to 2018. Festa floated the idea of bringing a new minor league hockey team to Richmond as part of an arena-anchored Navy Hill plan that failed to move forward in Richmond in 2020.
Winfrey said the Chesterfield facility is not suitable for professional hockey games because it doesn't have enough seating, but it could be used as a practice facility for professional teams that will play in future larger arenas in the area.
The Powhatan Ice Den opened in Oakbridge Business Park in the fall of 2021. The Richmond Generals, a youth hockey organization, rents out the rink for practices and games. The Powhatan Rink also hosts clinics for children and adults, as well as a girls' hockey club.
Winfrey said the new facility in Chesterfield will build on the group's existing relationship with SkateNation Plus and Richmond IceZone owner and Generals chairman Brad Robinson. The finer details of programming at the Chesterfield rink are still being worked out.
“We intend to continue this partnership to continue growing youth hockey,” Winfrey said.
The Chesterfield ice hockey venue would be built on land adjacent to The Lake, a large mixed-use development that includes a surf pool currently under construction, and nearby River City Sportsplex, a county-owned venue for youth sports tournaments.
The Fiesta project would be similar in size to a two-rink sports and entertainment complex currently planned in Midlothian as part of the county-led District 60 Springline project.
A Chesterfield spokesman did not respond Friday to a request for comment on the status of the plan. Later in 2023, Chesterfield was reconsidering whether to make an ice hockey rink part of the plan.
