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The State, Columbia, S.C., C. Grant Jackson Column: Arena to Host Hockey and More

Posted on: Friday, 13 January 2006, 09:00 CST

By C. Grant Jackson, The State, Columbia, S.C.

Jan. 13--The Columbia Inferno hockey team's new home will give Lexington County a $30 million sports and entertainment complex for concerts, stage shows and other events.

RIBEAU Entertainment, a 50-50 partnership of Inferno owners Ezra Riber and Sam Imbeau, will build and operate a 6,500-seat multi-function arena on Old Dunbar Road at Creekside Road.

The Inferno, which competes in the professional East Coast Hockey League, will be the anchor tenant for the arena. But the building also will be available for other activities, including a possible arena football team. Officials said Thursday they hope to hold about 160 events a year.

The arena will be the first phase of the 26-acre complex. Riber, a Columbia physician, said the second will involve an attached skating rink that could be used as an Inferno practice facility. It also could be used for youth and adult league recreational hockey and public skating when the main arena is busy.

Phase III will be a hotel that could be used by hockey players, Riber said. He said a couple of hotel chains have expressed interest.

Lexington County is giving RIBEAU the land for the project, with a 15-year attachment that the acreage must be used for an arena. The property, valued at $520,000, cannot be transferred to any other owner, said Al Burns, county economic development director.

The project will be privately financed. Deeding the property to RIBEAU will put it on the tax rolls, Burns said.

The initial investment for the arena was put at $17 million to $20 million. Construction of the second sheet of ice and the hotel would bring the total project to about $30 million.

The project will bring an estimated 140 full- and part-time jobs to Lexington County.

Officials hope to have the new arena in operation for the 2007-08 hockey season. That means the Inferno will play an additional season in Carolina Coliseum. Inferno officials are negotiating a one-year extension of their current lease, said Rick Woodard, the team's general manager.

The search for a new home for the Inferno has been a long process. But the team either had to find a new home in the Midlands or move, Riber said. Those were the only choices.

Plans for the complex were unveiled at a news conference in Lexington County Council chambers.

State Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, was praised as the prime force in finding a new home for the Inferno.

"Senator, you are a bulldog. This man said he would make it happen and he made it happen, make no mistake about it," said Woodard, who is also the project director.

The effort to find a new home for the Inferno began with a meeting years ago that included Knotts and Columbia Mayor Bob Coble.

"We said at that meeting that we were going to find a home for the Inferno, that we did not want them leaving Columbia," Knotts said. "We needed that sport, and we needed a place that they could call home and be a part of this community."

Knotts lauded Coble for his efforts. "You stuck to your word. He said he would support it and he is here today," Knotts said.

"We have found a place in Lexington County. They (Richland County) may have got our farmers market, but we have got the Inferno," he said. Lexington County lost a battle with Richland County last year to relocate the State Farmers Market.

Coble called it the best day for regional cooperation in the region's history.

"I think today shows that we are a region, that as a region we are going to be better off economically," he said. "When we realize that and when we lock arms together there is nothing we cannot do as a community from an economic development standpoint."

Riber said a market analysis showed a need for a medium-size arena in the Midlands.

He said the Inferno's fan base is split about equally between residents of Lexington and Richland counties.

Access to the arena will be significantly enhanced with the completion of phase two of the John Hardee Expressway. That project includes the widening of Old Dunbar Road, a new connector between the two roadways and a new access ramp from the expressway to Interstate 26. Construction is scheduled to start this year.

Those projects and the new complex are expected to create a development boom in what has been largely an industrial area near the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

Burns said he sees tremendous benefit to the area long term. Once the complex is up and running and the road work is done, he expects to see a transition to more commercial interests. The county owns another 100 acres in the area.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The State, Columbia, S.C.

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Source: The State (Columbia, S.C.)

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