Renowned Simsbury Ice Facility Releases Details On Expansion

SIMSBURY, CT — One of the town's biggest attractions and one that, when it opened 30 years ago drew international attention, is expanding.

Earlier in the month, the International Skating Center of Connecticut, which is located in Simsbury, unveiled renderings of what their new expansion would look like.

The 25,000-square-foot expansion is expected to be finished and operational by the spring of the new year at the facility, located at 1375 Hopmeadow St.

"As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of our facility, we couldn’t be more excited to offer our athletes and partner associations this exciting upgrade to ISCC," wrote the center on social media recently.

The Simsbury Zoning Commission last June unanimously approved a 25,175-square-foot expansion of the International Skating Center of Connecticut, which is located at 1375 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury.

Specifically, the zoning board June 17 approved a "site plan amendment" for the expansion, which would create two additional, half-size rinks to join the two full-size rinks that serve both figure skaters and ice hockey players statewide.

"The new space will include two mini-rink surfaces, additional locker rooms, and state-of-the art training facilities, providing athletes with NCAA and professional level amenities and resources," wrote the skating center on Dec. 20.

"The mini rinks will expand our ice footprint, enabling specialized training opportunities for our hockey players, figure skaters, and recreational skaters."

The ISCC was officially approved in 1994 and it immediately served as a training facility for Ukrainian figure skating icon Oksana Baiul, who won the 1994 Olympic gold medal as the rest of the world was enthralled with the infamous Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal.

The 17-plus acres of land where the center operates is owned by the Town of Simsbury, while the facility itself is owned by BMW Sports LLC, which is the listed applicant for the project.

The rinks will be on the west side of the building and allow for more users to have increased ice time for various skating programs.

It is home to Simsbury High School's ice hockey program, as well as several figure skating programs and other youth hockey leagues.

The ISCC also hosts public skating events as well.

From July 1: 'Major Expansion Approved At Skating Center In Simsbury'