Civic
Gesture
Novi enjoys a
new recreational
facility with the
help of a Jewish
developer.
Dan Weiss at the new
Novi Ice Arena.
ALAN ABRAMS
Special to The Jewish News
ovi businessman Dan
Weiss has taken on a new
persona as the city's ice
angel.
Because of his generosity and the
willingness of Novi city officials to
cut a deal with long-term benefits to
the community, kids from all over
that fast-growing Oakland County
suburb are taking to the ice.
Weiss, as managing partner of
Novi Ten Associates, donated 18.3
acres of land with a documented
value of $3.2 million to make Novi's
just-opened new civic ice arena a
reality.
For its part, the city got one of
the best land bargains since the
Dutch bought Manhattan from the
Indians. Novi paid a mere $232,000
for 1.4 acres of the 19.7 acre parcel.
But the city also spent $900,000 to
build Arena Road, leading from
Novi Road off 10 Mile to the Novi
Ice Arena and its new neighbor in
the recreational campus, the Sports
Club of Novi.
"I think the city, to their credit,
did a great job of working within
budgets and still delivering up a
facility that is gorgeous inside and
11/27
1998
74 Detroit Jewish News
out," said Weiss.
The total package, including land
and construction, cost $1 1.5 mil-
lion.
Contractor for the $8.5 million
building was Rudolph/Libbe, Inc.,
of Walbridge, Ohio, and construc-
tion rook about a year. The city's
goal was ice by August, and the
arena was officially opened to the
public on Oct. 17, still in time for
the school hockey league schedules.
The 78,000-square-foot facility
features two 85x100 foot ice sur-
faces, one with seating for 500 spec-
tators, the other for 220. There are
nine locker rooms, a skate rental,
cafeteria, and meeting rooms over-
looking the ice rinks.
Was there a shortage in the area
of available ice rinks? "Mothers and
fathers don't want to have to drive
any significant distance further than
they have to, and do not want to
take their kids on the ice at 2 a.m.
because that's all the open time there
is. Those two factors are what creat-