Johnny’s IceHouse East up for sale — but buyer must agree to close rink

Ali Lawrence wanted to establish a pro women’s hockey team in Chicago, and expected Johnny’s IceHouse East would be their home rink.

But then came news Wednesday that the property at 1350 W. Madison St. is up for sale — and any prospective buyer must agree not to use the West Loop property for hockey.

“The North Stars have been practicing mostly out of Johnny’s East; we talked about wanting to win a banner to have hung in the rafters,” said Lawrence, president of the Chicago North Stars, an all-woman team she formed in hopes of bringing the National Women’s Hockey League to Chicago.

“And for me, I learned how to play hockey at Johnny’s. As an adult learning to play a game like that, it was life changing; Johnny’s is a second home for me.”

Victor Hilitski/For the Sun-Times

Lawrence’s lament is just one sign of how Chicago’s hockey community is trying to cope, as the pandemic shuts down ice rinks across the city and suburbs.

Johnny’s, which opened in 1996, houses an ice rink, a bar, a hockey supply shop, an indoor parking lot and locker rooms. It also has been home to games for adult and youth leagues, as well as the De La Salle Institute’s hockey team and the club team from DePaul University.

But since the rink’s opening, property values in the surrounding West Loop neighborhood have soared.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

The sale of Johnny’s by owner Lisa Moro is being handled by commercial real estate firm Bradford Allen.

There’s no asking price listed on Bradford Allen’s website, which describes the 22,000-square-foot site as “ideal for residential and or retail mixed use,” with the “potential for adaptive reuse of the existing structure.”

“Reuse” is key; the listing also states: “This offering does not include the business and a condition of any sale will preclude the Buyer from continuing to operate the ice rink.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Neither Bradford Allen nor rink officials responded to requests for comment on why the sale requires the rink to shut down.

Johnny’s also operates an indoor skating facility at 2550 W. Madison St.

The property sale is a blow to local hockey players who — pandemic or not — often jockey for limited ice time in the city.

While some of Chicago’s professional, youth, high school, college, and recreational hockey league players called Johnny’s East home, they weren’t surprised that Moro, who took over after her husband, Tom Moro, died in 2018, would put the rink up for sale.

“Rising property value in a prime West Loop location, the passing of Tom Moro, an aging building with increasing maintenance costs, an undersized sheet of ice, and the opening of Fifth Third Arena all contribute to strain on the rink,” said Schuyler Jackson, a software solutions architect who’s played at Johnny’s East since 2013.

“Couple those with COVID and decreased bar sales — the writing is on the wall. We are all saddened by the prospective sale, but I don’t think anyone is shocked by it.”

Fifth Third Arena, the Chicago Blackhawks’ current practice facility, opened in 2017 and, like Johnny’s East, also is available for community skating and youth and adult leagues.

Without Johnny’s East, only four indoor ice rinks will operate year-round in the city: Johnny’s IceHouse West, the Blackhawks’ practice facility from 2010 to 2018; Fifth Third Arena; and Chicago Park District rinks at Morgan Park and McFetridge Sports Center.