With Olympic gold medal skater Sarah Hughes and other luminaries on hand, Chelsea Piers Connecticut opened its massive Stamford sports facility for tours and information sessions in advance of camps and leagues kicking into gear July 9.
“What really is so important about this very large investment (and) this very large structure is that it means the transition of Stamford from what it was once ”“ a large New England industrial city facing a dismal future,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the longtime Stamford mayor who grew up there. “This marks the completion — or at least another stage — of that transformation.”
The 200,000-square-foot facility features two ice rinks, an aquatics center and a field house, among other draws. Chelsea Piers Connecticut is scheduled to open just 15 months after construction began, with Stamford-based AP Construction the general contractor and Norwalk-based James G. Rogers Architects leading the design team.
“Sixteen years ago we had a similar opening day at Chelsea Piers New York,” said David Tewksbury, president of Chelsea Piers Connecticut. “Although we were excited about what we had built, we had no idea of the tremendous long-term impact Chelsea Piers would have on New York City ”¦ Over the years we have looked at a number of cities in the United States, but we could never out together all the critical ingredients. Finding a 30-acre site with significant and large buildings in the heart of Fairfield County was like hitting the bulls-eye.”
