Massive Cedar Park Ice Hockey Venue Breaks Ground

CEDAR PARK, TX — Are you ready for some hockey? The planned iSports venue — a massive, 206,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor sports complex to be built on 15.4 acres of Cedar Park land — broke ground this week, yielding a glimpse into the sheer magnitude of the project.

Officials affiliated with the development gathered on Wednesday for the groundbreaking. The project’s original anchor tenant, Chaparral Ice, will operate two NHL-sized hockey rinks and two turf fields. Also joining the project will be D1 Training Group of Central Texas, which will have an alliance with Jaxon Shipley, a former wide receiver for the University of Texas football team who now owns Shipley Performance.

A partnership comprising local investors and developers joined forces to form iSports Cedar Park, LTD, which is building the site off the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 183A Toll and Scottsdale Drive. Plans call for development of a mix of family entertainment, sports medicine, retail space and restaurants to complement each other in a single location.

Hockey pro Justin Dowling with kids and the Texas Stars mascot. Courtesy photo.

Construction is anticipated to take a little more than a year, meaning the facility may open as early as next summer, a project spokeswoman told Patch.

Related story: Groundbreaking For iSports Center Scheduled In Cedar Park

Key tenants include Chaparral Ice, which will operate the fields, and D1 Training Group of Central Texas, which has trained many of the nation’s top college and professional athletes like Peyton Manning, Chris Paul, Tim Tebow and Von Miller.

Eric Perardi (Perardi Development), Jaxon Shipley (Shipley Performance) and Ken Fidje (D1 Sports). Courtesy photo.

“From the onset, our ultimate goal has been to create a family-oriented destination where physical fitness is fun for people of all ages, abilities and athletic interests,” said Eric Perardi, founding principal of Perardi Development, which is the lead developer within the partnership. Perardi also coaches local youth hockey teams. “Today, our vision takes a giant symbolic step forward. But the reality is this is the culmination of a ton of hard work and dedication by a great number of people – not to mention a fundamental belief in our vision. We’ve assembled a first-class team and can’t wait to see this through to fruition.”

iSports Cedar Park’s principals include Eric Perardi of Perardi Development, JP Newman and Adrian Lufschanowski of Thrive FP, and John Trube, all of which were present for the celebration. Other attendees included leaders with Chaparral Ice and D1 Training, as well as notable sports figures including hockey stars Travis Morin and Justin Dowling, as well as football star Quan Cosby and two-time Superbowl champion Dan Neil.

Hockey pros Justin Dowling (in jersey on left) and Travis Morin (in jersey on right). Courtesy photo.

Also attending was Jaxon Shipley, a former wide receiver for the University of Texas football team who now owns Shipley Performance, which will have an alliance with the D1 Training franchise. His role will focus on specialized football training for youth.

The complex also helps the region’s leading ice rink operator, Chaparral Ice, not only with more capacity, officials said, but other offerings as well, officials noted. The expansion will bring two new regulation-sized National Hockey League ice rinks for youth and travel hockey, figure skating and curling programs, as well as skating for the general public. Furthermore, Chaparral will also operate turf fields, one indoor and one outdoor. The fields will be utilized for soccer, lacrosse, football, and numerous other sports.

Adrian Lufschanowski and JP Newman (both with Thrive, FP, financial backers of the project) with former Texas Longhorn and pro football players Quan Cosby and Dan Neil. Courtesy photo.

The facility breaks ground as the booming sports economy — youth sports industry in particular — continues to thrive. Given the trend, project officials aim to create a family-oriented destination where physical fitness is fun for people of all ages, abilities and athletic interests, officials said.

A feasibility report prepared for iSports Development by Strategic Performance Group found the 10-mile radius around the site offers compelling population and income demographics. In 2017, the 10-mile ring’s population was 394,231 residents, with an anticipated increase to 449,365 in 2022. Likewise, average household income for the same radius was $103,345 in 2017, with an anticipated increase to $121,974 in 2022.

In general, officials said, the sports economy is booming nationwide. Time magazine recently did an in-depth report called “How kids’ sports became a $15 billion industry,” a statistic from WinterGreen Research, a private firm that tracks the industry. That figure includes everything from travel to private coaching to apps that organize leagues and livestream games. HBO’s Real Sports also reported that families spent more than $10 billion on the road as part of the “youth sports tourism” industry in 2016.

About Perardi Development

Perardi Development is a national boutique real estate investment firm focused primarily on developing, acquiring, and managing medical office properties in emerging markets. Based in Austin, Perardi Development was started by an experienced development team with a unique platform utilizing innovative ownership structures tailored to the needs of physicians while creating investments across various communities. The firm’s founding principal previously played integral roles in medical office projects valued at more than $150 million. For more information, visit: www.perardidev.com.