Rendering of the facility (Credit: iSports/Perardi Development)

This morning in Cedar Park, the dream of so many local Austin hockey players will get one step closer to reality as Perardi Development breaks ground on the new iSports Training and Performance Center across 183A from the H-E-B Center. Chaparral Ice is the lead tenant at the new facility.100 Degree Hockey has been following the story of a suburban ice rink since its early days when the AHL’s Stars first moved to Cedar Park. Last year, Perardi and Chaparral Ice announced their partnership to build this facility and construction begins today.The complex, which will be located at the southeast corner of Scottsdale Drive and 183A in Cedar Park, will be multi-sport, housing two full-sized NHL ice sheets and a mini-sheet for practice and individual skills work, along with two turf fields, one indoors and one outdoors. All of the fields will also be operated by Chaparral.“The model is built on the fact we are in a non-traditional market,” Chaparral Ice owner Ryan Raya told 100 Degree Hockey when reached by phone this week. “We have other niche sports that take a backseat to football and baseball.”To that end, iSports looks to house sports beyond hockey and figure skating, such as soccer, lacrosse, gymnastics and cheer squads. Raya calls the concept a “sports mall” where all of the tenants work together to reinforce the value of the facility as a whole. “We’re just a tenant here, and we’re partnering to make sure that the people in the building are working toward the same goal.”Other potential tenants include medical facilities, such as orthopedics, sports medicine and chiropractic services. As of the current moment, D1 Training is the only announced partner, but Raya notes, “There are a lot of groups in Austin that are well-known that are looking to be a part of this.”Raya’s project came to fruition thanks to a bit of a chance meeting several years ago. The owner of Perardi Development, Eric Perardi, played Division 1 college hockey at RPI. When Eric came in to interview for a youth coaching opening, he joked with Raya that he should give him a call if he ever wanted to build a new facility.Raya took him up on the offer. He already had a business plan ready to go for the multi-sport facility. Over the past few years, Chaparral has been using their renovations at the Northcross Mall location as a proof of concept for the market’s appetite for this type of facility. “We needed to see if Austin would gravitate to ice sports using the existing facility as a model. It worked. People are interested in coming out.”While multi-sport is definitely a huge part of the success, Raya also thinks that hockey will be a big winner in the facility. He points to the recent success of the youth teams based at Chaparral, including the 10U state championship, as proof that there is a massive talent base here in Austin that is untapped. “We’re building this facility for [those kids]. We want them to have the access that every kid has up north to develop.” He also believes the seeing is believing factor that every hockey fan knows about will attract even more players, envisioning soccer or lacrosse players walking by the rink and becoming enamored with the game of hockey.As to the Texas Stars involvement, nothing is formally agreed to at this point. Texas practices at the Northcross location when the H-E-B Center is unavailable. “The Stars have always been interested in what we were doing. They’re sending some representatives to the ground breaking to show support, but it’s really up to them how much they do or don’t want to use the facility. I’m hopeful, but there isn’t anything formal in place.”The facility is set to open June 2020.