A great deal is happening behind the scenes here in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia as momentum builds for the North Fork Ice Arena project.
We have formally incorporated Virginia Ice Sports, Inc., and our five-member Board is now in place:
- Dan Smythe (Col class of ’79), President
- Roger Voisinet, Co-President
- Tom Hillgrove (Com class of ’78), Vice President
- Keith Rosenfeld (Col class of ’79), Secretary
- Kareem El-Alaily (Engr class of ’98), Treasurer
At our next Board meeting in early April, we will begin inviting individuals to join a Board of Advisors. If this is something that may interest you, please let me know by emailing me at roger@cvilleproperties.com. Participation carries no formal obligations, but your insight and perspective would be very valuable as the project moves forward.
The board has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UVA Foundation to fund up to $75,000 for our architects’ site plan analysis. This study will run through June 2026. We are currently funding this work through deposits into our account at the UVA Alumni Association.
On March 3, 2026, we held our first in-person meeting with our architects from JLG Architects, a Minneapolis-based firm. The meeting, which took place at Town Center IV at North Fork, was extremely productive. We reviewed our goals for the facility and shared the history of hockey and skating in Charlottesville. One particularly encouraging aspect of the discussion was how many members of the Foundation team had personal connections to the sport. These connections reminded us that hockey has deeper roots in this community than many might expect. The Winter Olympics and Ilia Malinin of George Mason University has increased local interest in skating sports substantially. We are excited about possibly planning for and including USA Sled hockey and disabled skate sports.
After the meeting, several board members drove to Richmond to visit the construction site of the Richmond Ice Zone Ice Box, a two-sheet arena also designed by JLG Architects and scheduled for completion in July 2026. We expect to bring members of the Foundation team there for a tour sometime in May or June.
Looking ahead, we are also exploring an early Phase 1 initiative. Board Vice President, Tom Hillgrove, owns a 60’ x 100’ seasonal outdoor rink, and if all goes well, we hope to install it at North Fork in early November 2026. The temporary rink would serve two purposes:
A visible marketing and community engagement tool- A way to reintroduce young people to skating while providing a convenient practice surface for the UVA Cavaliers men’s and women’s club teams.
Meanwhile, the teams themselves continue to generate excitement. The UVA Women’s Hockey Team celebrated its 25th anniversary on March 21–22, 2026, while the UVA Men’s team recently advanced all the way to the Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey League Elite Division championship game against Saint Joseph’s Hawks, ultimately falling 4–3 in overtime after a remarkable run.
Finally, please consider attending the upcoming UVA Alumni Reunions weekend, even if your class year is not being formally recognized or if you are a non-alumnus like me. We plan to present an update on the arena project and hope to share early renderings and preliminary floor plans by that time.
The project continues to gain traction, and we are grateful for the growing interest and support from alumni and the broader Charlottesville community.
Best,
Roger Voisinet, Co-President