For many, the quintessential Northeast winter experience includes some ice skating under the stars in places like Rockefeller Center or Bryant Park. And this holiday season, local residents and families will have another outdoor skating option available to them under Hoboken’s 14th Street Viaduct, as a new temporary ice rink will provide a taste of winter fun that might be further expanded upon next year.
At last week’s City Council meeting, a “winter village” project was approved that is tentatively scheduled to open on December 20th. It will be called Harlow Winter Village. The ice skating rink portion, which will be placed between Grand and Adams Streets directly across from Bowtie Cinemas, will operate daily from 9AM until 10PM and run through the end of February.
Advance Realty will be the exclusive sponsor of the winter village and is kicking in $25,000 to the city for costs associated with the project. The company is currently finishing up their first Hoboken project, Harlow, right nearby at 14th Street and Willow Avenue. The project is best known for an amenity no other building in the area can claim, a Trader Joe’s on the ground floor.
Chill Entertainment will be constructing the rink for the winter village project, which could be a harbinger of things to come. Earlier this year, a parking garage project at Stevens Institute’s Babbio Center was approved by the city’s Zoning Board and as part of the deal, a public plaza will be included on the roof of the facility. When the construction is complete, that rooftop is slated to have a seasonal ice skating rink component, which would feature some spectacular views of the Hudson River.
Stevens Institute has said in official plans they submitted to the city that they hope to finish the garage project up by November 2017, meaning that if the timeline holds, next winter could see a more permanent seasonal ice skating rink come to Hoboken. The garage project hasn’t broken ground yet but is scheduled to start by the end of this calendar year.
In the meantime, residents can look forward to the 14th Street Viaduct’s latest addition, plus some other ice-skating options along the Hudson that are gearing up for the season change. The Charlie Heger Ice Rink at Jersey City’s Pershing Field is officially open for the season and the outdoor ice rink at Newport Skates is slated to open back up on November 19th.
