Mall of America falls in love with Ice Castles | Finance & Commerce

Posted: 5:00 pm Tue, September 18, 2012
By Chris?Newmarker
Tags: Bloomington Planning Commission, Brent Christensen, Dan Jasper, Ice Castles LLC, Mall of America, Ryan Davis, Triple Five Group

Temperature permitting, Ice Castles LLC will build a ?fortress of ice? outside the Mall of America that will look much like the complex shown here, built last winter in Silverthorne, Colo. (Submitted photo: Ice Castles LLC)

It has been years since St. Paul?s Winter Carnival has featured an ice palace. But on the other side of the Twin Cities metro, the Mall of America plans to host a one-acre ?Ice Castles of America,? complex that organizers say could draw 55,000 people this winter.

The Bloomington Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday on whether to grant an interim use permit for Midway, Utah-based Ice Castles LLC. The company seeks to create and maintain what planning documents describe as a ?fortress of ice? with towers more than 35 feet high rising at the ?Met Lot? overflow parking area north of the mall.

Ryan Davis, a Utah real estate consultant who co-owns Ice Castles with its artistic designer Brent Christensen, expects work to begin in November on the ice fantasy. Visitors would pay a yet-to-be-determined fee to enter the attraction through a 25-foot-long tunnel of pure ice. The complex would include a sledding hill and concession stands. He hopes to open by Christmas and keep operating through March.

Davis is still working out details around ticket pricing. A business partnership with the Mall of America would also help support the project, which is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build.

Davis and Christensen approached the Mall of America and its owner, Edmonton, Alberta-based Triple Five Group, about bringing the ice castle to MOA because they were looking to introduce more people than ever to the spectacle.

?We?ve been in really small towns so far in the Colorado Rockies and Utah ? So we looked across the country for a place where we could grow an ice castle like this, and Minneapolis worked. So we approached the mall to see if they?d be interested in partnering with us for the winter, and they said, ?Yes.? We?re pretty excited about it,? Davis said.

Ice Castles LLC is also planning an ice castle in Breckenridge, Colo.

Mall of America spokesman Dan Jasper said the ice castle will be an exciting winter addition.

?Our winter traffic continues to grow each year, and events like this help to drive traffic and awareness to the mall,? Jasper said.

Spectacles are a tried and true way to bring more visitors to commercial properties. A circuslike horse show called ?Cavalia? ? by a troupe based in Montreal ? brought in about 2,000 people a night to Shops at West End in St. Louis Park in late 2011.

Recent attractions at the Mall of America included the Beer Fest in August and the Diana: A Celebration exhibit that ran from Feb. 4 through June 10.? Cirque du Soleil: OVO was a popular event last year.

Davis ?said 10,000 people came to see the firm?s first ice castle, created at the Zermatt Resort in Midway, Utah for the winter of 2009-10. Visitor numbers increased to 25,000 for the ice castle in the Town Square in Midway in 2010-11. Visitor number increased again to 42,000 in 2011-12 after the ice castles moved to another new site, this time in Silverthorne, Colo.

Davis acknowledged that the venture is still very much a ?startup,? bringing in just a slight profit last year.

?We?re still trying to find out how we can make it more economically feasible to build. It?s surprisingly expensive, when it?s all manpower to build,? Davis said.

Davis acknowledged that Mother Nature will also have to help, with many below-freezing days needed to grow and maintain the structure.

To create the structures, the company uses a patented process that Christensen developed in his backyard in Utah over the years.

Instead of stacking ice blocks that are supported by scaffolds, the company uses a sprinkler system to dispense some 4 million gallons of water in a series of overnight soakings to ?grow? the cave-like structure. Fifteen seasonal workers are expected to join the company?s three-person crew.

Plans for the Mall of America castle include an inner tower rising more than 35 feet, surrounded by a continuous formation of walls and towers that will rise to a height of over 20 feet. Light-emitting diodes embedded inside the ice structures will provided illumination.

The Twin Cities, St. Paul in particular, has a tradition of fairytale-like ice buildings. Going back to the late 19th century, the St. Paul Winter Carnival has built 36 ice palaces ? the last one constructed in 2004 for the NHL All Star Game.

Beth Pinkney, president and CEO of St. Paul Festival & Heritage Foundation, does not think the MOA ice castle will hurt attendance at the Winter Carnival, which will run from Jan. 24 to Feb. 3, 2013. The annual event brings an estimated 300,000 people to downtown St. Paul annually.

?We welcome any events that are brought to the Twin City metro area, and welcome any people who want to embrace winter like we do,? Pinkney said.

St. Paul has no plans for an ice palace for the upcoming festival.

?The investment doesn?t make sense with the economy we stand in,? Pinkney said. ?It?s going to happen one day.?

See below for a music video featuring a previous creation by Ice Castles:

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Source: http://finance-commerce.com/2012/09/mall-of-america-falls-in-love-with-ice-castles/

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