BY Aline Reynolds
There will be an ice rink in Downtown this winter, thanks to a new feature at a lofty neighborhood hotel. But, according to area residents, it is far from an acceptable substitute for last year’s rink at the Battery Park City ball fields.
On Saturday, around 70 people skated on the new outdoor ice-skating rink at the “W” New York-Downtown, which is available for community members and hotel guests alike. It is the latest addition to the hotel, which opened last August at the intersection of Washington and Albany Streets.
The rink offers the Downtown community a substitute to the B.P.C. rink, which the Battery Park City Authority chose not to reopen this year after contract disputes with the prior operator.
Sofia Vandaele, general manager of the “W,” said the rink, which is located on the hotel’s fifth floor public terrace, is just as much a facility for the Lower Manhattan community as it is for the guests of the hotel.
“I think we have more than [enough] opportunity now to reach out to our new community,” she said. The rink, she added, “really is bringing the experience of the terrace to the community year-round.”
The rink will be open Monday through Sunday, 2 to 10 p.m., until February 15, 2011.
“We hope someone will get engaged [on the ice] on Valentine’s Day – fingers crossed!” said Daniella Weinberg, public relations manager at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, parent company of the “W.”
Vandaele said the “W” hopes to start up programming at the rink in collaboration with Hudson River Park Mother’s Group and with financial and consultant companies in the area, though the specifics have yet to be ironed out.
Skating on the rink is free and, if users don’t bring their own skates, they can rent a pair from the hotel for $12. Though only 15-to-20 people can skate on it at one time, Vandaele said that the “W” doesn’t anticipate the need for a wait list to use the rink.
“It operates on a first-come, first-serve basis,” she said. “At the moment, we’re comfortable that we can deal with the requests and interest we’ll have.”
The rink is an eco-friendly installation: its surface is composed of synthetic, recycled polymer, which unlike natural ice, doesn’t require refrigeration or a generator to keep cool. A barricade surrounds it, and its surface is maintained with friction-reduction liquid to keep skaters from slipping.
Skaters can relax during their breaks on the wrap-around terrace that directly faces Ground Zero. The outdoor “Ice Bar” offers an array of hot and cold cocktails, zesty names like “Get Your Rocks Off,” “Hot Toddy” and “Kumquat Mule.”
Not everyone, however, is content with the new rink. Tribeca residents Blake Haider and Phil Zrihen believe it to be a poor replacement of the B.P.C. rink, which the B.P.C. Authority did not reopen this winter. “It’s too small – you can’t skate on it,” said Haider.
Comparing the two, he said, is like comparing a whirlpool with a swimming pool. Nevertheless, Haider plans on taking his five-year-old daughter ice-skating there soon, since there is no other rink in the near vicinity.
Zrihen, who also misses the B.P.C. rink, said he isn’t going to bother bringing his eight- and six-year-olds to the “W” to skate. “I suspect that it’s unlikely for us to be able to get on [the rink], given the limited number of people that can skate at one time,” he said. It also isn’t the sports-oriented rink the family enjoys, like the former B.P.C. rink or the Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers. “There’s a big difference,” he said, “between full-service and a touristy-type attraction.”
But the “touristy-type” tiny rink does have its appeal, even though that appeal is not so much about the skating.
Chelsea resident Erica Gianchetti visited the “W” on Monday with her friend, Andy Borella, to try out the new rink, which, she said, is more intimate than the one at Chelsea Piers. “You don’t get the luxury of a bar while you ice skate – it’s very New York,” Gianchetti said, smiling.
Borella, who works at a public relations firm in the Flatiron District, said it’s a perfect respite from a stressful day at work. “I came here to be with my friend, not to free-willy skate,” he said.
