Rink purchaser buys big headache

Owners of MoCo Engineering & Fabrication picked up more baggage than a traveling hockey team when they purchased Planet Ice recently.

When AmericanWest Bank shut down the Spokane Valley rink Tuesday, weeks of hate mail and angry phone calls intensified – even though MoCo has yet to take possession of the rink.

“I haven’t even done any business for a month. It’s absolutely crippled us,” said Erik Humble, an owner of the company. “All we did was buy a building.”

Humble is working on a lease agreement that could save the season for dozens of hockey teams and figure skaters. If all goes as planned, Planet Ice could reopen in the next few days, in time to host a 20-team regional tournament next weekend.

Getting to this point has proved nerve-racking for Humble, a man who usually does business with a handshake but who has spent several thousand dollars on attorney fees for the lease agreement.

Humble said the company had planned to let skaters finish the season but couldn’t find any rink operators willing to rent and manage the facility, located off Barker Road.

When the bank shut down the rink, MoCo started working with a group of ice users who formed a limited liability company to lease the ice rink. The agreement could reopen the facility in the next few days. However, a reopening date depends on getting paperwork finalized and taking possession from the bank, Humble said,

When that happens, figure skaters and hockey teams – including the Coeur d’Alene Colts and Spokane Braves – will have until March 31 to finish their seasons. After that, the rink will become a manufacturing plant.

“This fabrication company is just working hard to make it happen for us. They’ve been really great,” said Kim Via, president of Inland Empire Amateur Hockey Association, a youth league.

“The big thing we had to get through is making sure the 200 kids who skate for me can finish their season,” Via said.

MoCo, which makes equipment for sawmills, and another company are taking it on the chin to save the season. The manufacturing company is selling its current Spokane Valley building to Wagstaff Inc. When Humble learned of the ice shortage the teams faced, he called Bill Wagstaff and asked him to postpone his plans to move in immediately, so MoCo could stay put until the end of the hockey season.

When Humble toured the bankrupt ice rink, he never imagined the commotion it would cause. Although well-used, the rink languished on the real estate market for three years.

AmericanWest operated Planet Ice at a loss after its previous owner defaulted on almost $4 million in loans. It had simultaneously loaned money to Ice World USA, a Liberty Lake facility that also went bankrupt.

After suffering nearly $2 million in losses while trying to get rink operators to buy Planet Ice at reduced prices, the bank starting looking at buyers who wanted the building for other uses. In September, its asking price was $1.7 million.

With costs of concrete and construction materials rising, Humble believed the building was a bargain. Purchasing it would enable him to expand the small machine manufacturing company that he started 10 years ago in an unheated garage.

“When I bought the facility it was implied to me that everyone knew this was for sale and there wouldn’t be issues,” Humble said.

He leveraged his home, and a few other assets, made an offer of about $1.5 million and inherited a nightmare.

For a solid month, the small company’s phone rang with calls from angry ice users. Dozens of e-mails accused the father and volunteer youth coach of everything from corporate greed to hating children.

“The wrath of a soccer mom is nothing compared to the wrath of a hockey mom,” Humble said.

A self-proclaimed millionaire from Coeur d’Alene called and told him he should donate the facility.

“For that $200 million guy to tell me I don’t care about kids and youth organizations really irks me,” Humble said. “I’m going to lose money on this no matter which way I turn.”

Kris Ryan, office manager for Planet Ice, said MoCo is “bending over backwards” to help rink users.

“The new owners have just been slammed by the media. They had no idea it was going to be the fiasco it has become,” Ryan said.

Humble, who hasn’t slept well for the past few weeks, is looking forward to resolving the issue so his life can get back to normal.

“I don’t care to look like the hero – I just don’t want to be the villain.”