Rink marks 20 years in Hawai'i

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Twenty years ago, Doug Taylor gave himself a little out in case his idea to turn a lettuce farm into Hawai'i's only ice rink flopped.

Doug Taylor was prepared to convert the Ice Palace into a supermarket or furniture store in case his initial idea flopped. The ice rink has survived 20 years of business and has developed a loyal following among residents. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

It was Taylor's fallback plan in case people in Hawai'i decided they didn't want to spend their days inside a 55-degree building spinning on ice.

Today, Taylor's Ice Palace has evolved into a $1 million-a-year business that has survived some of Hawai'i's leaner years.

It celebrated its 20th anniversary in September.

Over the years, the Ice Palace has become home to adult and junior hockey leagues, wannabe Olympic skaters, Special Olympians and thousands of birthday parties.

Part of what has helped Taylor, a 60-year-old businessman with no children of his own, thrive as a business is his initiative in constantly creating new activities so children and teenagers don't get bored on the 15,000-square-foot, Olympic-standard rink.

On a recent day, parents sat on the rink's chilly bleachers as their children slithered on rental skates underneath a limbo stick, encouraged by a deejay's voice booming over a massive, $100,000 sound system. Upstairs in the birthday party area, Malia Kunioka sat in a chair clapping together the blades of her blue skates, surrounded by friends and their parents for her eighth birthday party.

"It's all for kids, 5 to 16 years old," Taylor said. "We don't get a lot of college kids. So you're always looking for ways to keep it fun and interesting so the kids don't get bored."

Three cars caught on fire last year and left the side of the building temporarily scorched. Otherwise, Taylor's had no serious problems, he said, knocking on one of the Zamboni ice-cleaning machine's for luck.

"Nope, no gangs, nothing like that," Taylor said. "For whatever reason, this place doesn't attract that kind of crowd."

Robin DeStefano of Mililani paid about $130 to throw a birthday party for her daughter Elissa and 20 of her friends and their parents. Elissa's was just one of 60 birthday parties held at the Ice Palace each weekend.

"We're having a blast," DeStefano said, as the children ate pizza catered from the rink's food operation. "We were just looking for something different."

There are somewhere between 1,500 and 1,700 "community ice arenas" around the country, according to the Dallas-based Ice Skating Institute. But unlike the others, Taylor has figured out a way to turn birthday parties into a consistent stream of revenue, said Peter Martell, the institute's executive director.

"Apparently Doug has mastered the birthday party formula," Martell said. "Most do six to 10, at most 20, per weekend. Doug's doing killer business. He's got that formula down and he should clone it for those of us over here."

About 65 percent of the Ice Palace's revenue comes from entrance fees. Food sales make up about 25 percent and the remainder comes from retail sales of hockey and figure skating equipment, video games and renting the rink out for special occasions.

Taylor wasn't sure how it would all work when he first got the idea for the Ice Palace in 1975.

He was reading an article about the busiest ice rink in the world, in Singapore, that attracted 2,500 customers per day. Taylor did a little bit more research and learned that ice rinks in warm climates could succeed.

His idea was based purely on business, not a love for skating.

Taylor had grown up in Portland, Ore., where his ice skating background was limited to hanging out with his friends at the local rink. He was more of a skier who grew up to coach three different high school ski teams around Mount Hood.

In Hawai'i he was running a real estate brokerage firm that got a job consulting on an ice rink deal around Seattle. That's when the idea for an ice rink in Hawai'i began to take hold.

He hired a research firm to ask people around Ala Moana Shopping Center whether they'd pay to go ice skating and the results were overwhelmingly positive.

Taylor figured a stand-alone rink wouldn't make money with Hawai'i's high land costs. He needed to surround the rink with retail outlets that could share the land costs and succeed together.

One major mall seemed interested, but never got close to a deal. So Taylor started thinking about building his own commercial center with the rink as the anchor tenant, modeled after an operation he saw in Portland.

He found a 6 1/2-acre lettuce farm near Aloha Stadium owned by the Queen Emma Foundation and put together the Aliamanu Development Co. with Royal Contracting Co. But Taylor couldn't get a loan to cover the $7.5 million costs to develop both the shopping center and the ice rink, which one major bank considered too much of a risk.

So the Ice Palace and Stadium Mall became two separate operations. The Ice Palace was all Taylor's. The development company owned the 34-tenant retail operation and Taylor would manage it. Today, it includes a Goodyear center, fish market, chiropractor's office, Subway, Jack-in-the-Box and other small businesses.

David Hulihee, president of Royal Contracting Co., said he never doubted that Taylor would make the Ice Palace — and the shopping center that surrounds it — work.

"He's a great partner," Hulihee said. "I never have to worry about him. He manages the whole shopping center for us. He's just a good guy."

On Sept. 25, 1982, the Ice Palace opened and the line of customers weaved around the block.

Taylor knew it would be a hit because of the novelty. He just hoped the popularity would last.

The first three years were good. Then the economy started to go sour in 1985 and people started using their discretionary income elsewhere. Revenues at the Ice Palace fell 20 percent that year.

The Ice Palace quickly became a barometer for Hawai'i's economy as sales rose and fell with good times and bad. Taylor always sees a surge in business during the Winter Olympics, but income dropped 15 percent during the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm.

Through the ups and downs, Taylor's biggest fear was that someone else might try to start a competing rink. And Honolulu isn't big enough for two ice rinks, Taylor said.

His research through the Ice Skating Institute showed that one rink needs a captive population of 600,000 to 700,000 to survive. That's why he's never considered expanding to the Neighbor Islands.

Martell, of the Ice Skating Institute, said the formula is a little more complicated. An ice rink generally needs a population of 250,000 within a 15-mile radius or a 20-minute drive away.

"I don't know that you could say that an island of 800,000 people can't support two ice rinks," he said. "I guess the question is, 'Would there be sufficient interest from those 800,000 people to support two ice rinks?'"

There certainly is enough work to go around. The Ice Palace employs 50 people — mostly teenagers who work on the busy weekends.

Just keeping the two Zamboni machines and dehumidifier going each day is a feat in engineering. The ice is also kept chilled at 8 to 10 degrees and the compressors that do the work require a repair person to be on call round-the-clock.

Taylor walks with a slight bounce in his step and speaks with an easy-going, high pitch in his voice. He's kept a low-key temperament despite the high cost of keeping the Ice Palace running — $100,000 for a new lighting system; another $12,000 to $15,000 to overhaul the compressors every 18 months.

Taylor learned early how to keep the machinery running. He even used to drive the Zambonis around the ice. There have been many lessons over the years. And one of the most simple is that Island kids who can ride skateboards, roller skates and surfboards can learn to ice skate with little help.

"It's all about balance," Taylor said.

It's a motto, he said, that works for ice skating as well as business.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.