An indoor ice rink facility in Enfield sold for $3.5 million in February.
The Enfield Twin Rinks property at 1 Prior Road was sold by the Hillebrecht Group LLC to ETR Operating LLC, a Bethesda, Md.-based company formed in February. The town logged the sale on Feb. 15.
The buyer is run by two executives from Black Bear Sports Group, a company with the same Bethesda address as ETR Operating. According to its website, Black Bear was formed in 2015 to buy and rehabilitate aging ice rinks for continued operation.
“Black Bear’s goal is to save older rinks by investing capital to bring their facilities up to modern standards and provide great programming for its hockey and figure skating communities,” reads a portion of the website.
Attempts to reach a Black Bear representative were not immediately successful Thursday morning.
ETR Operating’s principals are Ryan Scott and Robert Dragonette. The limited liability company’s state business filing lists Scott and Dragonette personal and residential addresses as the same Bethesda address of Black Bear Sports Group.
Scott is vice president of Black Bear, according to the company’s website.
Dragonette is listed as chief financial officer.
The 52,956-square-foot skating and hockey facility in Enfield was built in 1974, according to town assessing records. The property is nearly six acres.
William Raveis Real Estate & Home Services was the listing broker but had an agreement with the property owners that they could close independently if they identified a buyer, according to Daniel Burgio, sales vice president and team leader with William Raveis.
And that is what happened, he said.
Burgio said there had been “quite a bit of interest.”
One or two potential buyers wanted to tear down the rink and use the property for other purposes, Burgio said, but most wanted to continue operations. Some were businesspeople who saw it as a profitable venture, others were parents and people involved in leagues at the rink who wanted to keep it going, he said.
