Glacier Design Warmly Received

Anaheim’s City Council granted unanimous approval Tuesday for the overall design of the Gotcha Glacier indoor extreme sports park, paving the way for the one-of-a-kind, $105-million project.

The only chill in a warm reception for the project was over how its name will be displayed. Backers want the words “Gotcha Glacier” in giant red letters on the roof, but the Planning Commission had recommended that the letters be below the roof line. The council sent that issue back to the commission for further discussion.

The developers said they can live with another recommendation by the Planning Commission: that there be no more than 15 large signs on the walls of the complex displaying the various activities inside.

Mayor Tom Daly said he hopes council members can grant final approval for the Glacier the next time the project comes before them.

“We’ll look forward to hopefully what will be the final version,” he said. “The drawings get more and more interesting in every version, especially in this latest scale drawing. And the scale is large.”

The four-level Glacier would house a 3 1/2-acre snow slope suitable for professional snowboarding contests, an indoor-outdoor surf park with six wave pools, a towering rock-climbing wall, a skate park, a nightclub, stores and restaurants.

In a presentation to the council, Gotcha proponents showed a bird’s-eye-view drawing of the complex at dusk, one end towering above the adjacent Sun Theatre and the other end dwarfing the Arrowhead Pond.

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The complex, which has been in the planning stages for more than two years, would be the crown jewel of Sportstown, a proposed entertainment and sports center next to Edison International Field. At a maximum height of 173 feet, it would be taller than the baseball stadium, which is 110 feet.

The first phase of the project includes the development of a 444,000-square-foot Glacier and 40,000 square feet of retail space that would tie in to the project’s extreme-sports theme. Additional retail development would be part of the second phase.

The council’s go-ahead presumably will make it easier for backers to accomplish their next task: arranging $100 million in financing. They would not discuss those efforts Tuesday but previously have expressed confidence about prospects for a private bond sale.

Presuming that financing is arranged, construction is now set to begin this spring, with an opening projected for the summer of 2001.

The project’s backers include Henry Samueli and Henry Nicholas, the high-tech entrepreneurs who have supplanted Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren as Orange County’s wealthiest residents, according to Forbes magazine’s list of the wealthiest Americans. The price of their Broadcom Corp. stock has soared nearly 300% over the last year.

Extreme sports at the Glacier are expected to provide fodder for newfangled Internet and TV programming that can be decoded by computer chips made by Irvine-based Broadcom.

The Broadcom pair were brought into the project by Marvin Winkler, a Glacier partner who controls the Irvine-based surf-wear company Gotcha International, which will lend its name to the facility.

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Sportstown is envisioned as an activity-packed center that would include the Glacier, the Angels’ stadium and the Ducks’ arena.

The Glacier would be flanked by a scuba-diving tank, a huge wind tunnel for simulated skydiving and a sporting goods store. Other projects that have been discussed for several buildings separate from the Glacier include billiards and bowling complexes to which older patrons could retreat while their children hit the slopes.

Promoters say sports and music festivals could be held in the parking lot or baseball stadium.

Making money from the sprawling parking lot surrounding Edison Field has been a two-decade dream for the city of Anaheim.

Bit by bit, the Glacier’s proponents have been putting together a structure designed to bring their dream to reality.

They have signed Kajima Corp., which built the world’s first indoor ski area in Tokyo, to supervise the Glacier’s construction with Turner Construction Co., which remodeled Edison Field, as the general contractor. Mammoth Mountain crews have signed on to operate the snowboard and ski runs, and Ogden Co., which runs the Arrowhead Pond, will manage the Glacier.

Anaheim’s Redevelopment Agency in June agreed that the city will reimburse Glacier developer Glacier of Anaheim LLC for 50% of the infrastructure costs for the entire Sportstown site. Last December, the City Council approved a long-term lease agreement for the Gotcha Glacier that is expected to be worth $37 million to Anaheim over the next 30 years.

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The Wild World of Sports

The proposed Gotcha Glacier indoor extreme sports park would feature snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding, surfing, skydiving and rock climbing -- all inside a hangar-like facility adjacent to Edison Field in Anaheim.

A look inside:

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times