{"id":794169,"date":"2019-03-25T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T01:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/dillon-ice-castles-a-success-in-second-year\/"},"modified":"2019-03-25T19:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T01:04:00","slug":"dillon-ice-castles-a-success-in-second-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/dillon-ice-castles-a-success-in-second-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Dillon Ice Castles a success in second year"},"content":{"rendered":"
Crews work to take tear down the Ice Castles Monday, March 25, in Dillon.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just weeks ago hordes of visitors were pouring into Summit County to take in the frozen spires and colorfully illuminated passageways of the Dillon Ice Castles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, two weeks after closing, what remains is a somewhat somber reminder of the temporary nature of ice castles: a short-lived work of art composed of hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, more than 200 lights and over 10,000 man-hours of construction work reduced to a giant pile of snow and ice in the Town Park. But while the castles can\u2019t remain for long, their impact is still substantial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Dillon has been recognized as a sleepy town without as much recognition as some of our neighbors, despite great amenities and a great location to access all this area has to offer,\u201d said Kerstin Anderson, marketing and events director for Dillon. \u201cThe media value that has been brought by the ice castles in the Front Range and nationally is upwards of millions of dollars we couldn\u2019t achieve without an attraction like the ice castles. The other piece is the satisfaction levels and just the sense of glee. To have that tied to your town or your brand is really something special for Dillon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2018-19 season was the second straight year that Dillon hosted the ice castles, one of six in North America built by Ice Castles LLC every year. This season, the attraction was able to open about a week earlier in December than in first year due to colder early winter weather, allowing even more visitors to make their way to the spectacle despite some intermittent closures to I-70 and other roadways into Summit County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t release our visitor numbers, but it was a strong year and we did a little better than last year,\u201d said Ryan Davis, CEO of Ice Castles LLC. \u201cWe had pretty consistent traffic, so it was a good winter for us. \u2026 We got a decent amount of skiers, but a surprising amount of people were just driving up from the Denver area just to see the castles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillon saw relatively consistent sales tax numbers compared to last season, when the town witnessed a massive boom to business due to the ice castles. In December, when the attraction opened, the town saw an extra $28,747 on top of the 2017 numbers, a 4.1 percent increase. In January this year, the town saw sales tax numbers drop about $14,600 from 2018, about a 2 percent decrease. The numbers still represent a considerable jump for those months since before the ice castles arrived \u2014 28.4 percent growth in January since 2016, and 21.2 percent growth in December since 2017. The town hasn\u2019t yet released numbers from February or March.<\/p>\n

Anderson also said that this season couldn\u2019t really be considered an \u201capples-to-apples\u201d comparison due to some businesses closing before winter, such as Adriano\u2019s Bistro that was torn down to make room for Uptown 240, and the Conoco gas station that was demolished to make room for the Hilton Homewood Suites. Though businesses in the area still felt that the ice castles helped to boost traffic during the winter months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was good,\u201d said Craig Sikorski, owner of Jersey Boys Pizza and Deli in Dillon, who said he\u2019d like to see the castles return next winter. \u201cAs far as being a business owner, I think it was really good for us and for the town. They always help us, and it was a really good season overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following another strong showing from the ice castles, it still remains to be seen whether or not the company will return later this year for a third season. Part of the discussion will revolve around how the Dillon Town Park is able to recover following the deconstruction of the castles this spring.<\/p>\n

Last year, significant damage to the park put the ice castle\u2019s return in jeopardy, after construction equipment used to remove the ice gashed large areas of the park.<\/p>\n

Both Ice Castles LLC and the town are optimistic those issues can be avoided this spring. The group brought in Marston Mats \u2014 steel planking to create a temporary floor \u2014 this year to help minimize damage to the grass.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn year one there are a lot of things you don\u2019t know, like how it\u2019s going to drain,\u201d said Davis. \u201cYou can guess but you don\u2019t know until you do it. There was some learning last year. One of the operators that helped us tear down ended up digging into the lawn, but this year they know what to expect rather than it being the maiden voyage. There will be a lot of things we\u2019ll be able to do more efficiently and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to remove the castles without significantly damaging the park would be a big step in the right direction for the potential of the ice castles returning, especially as the town moves forward with projects related to the Dillon Parks and Recreation Master Plan. This summer, Dillon is planning on making parking improvements along Buffalo Street and La Bonte Street, and reconstructing the tennis courts. Next year, the town is hoping to construct a multi-use field and make playground improvements at the park.<\/p>\n

Anderson said that representatives with Ice Castles LLC would likely return to Dillon sometime in the near future to discuss a third season in Dillon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to talk to council, and see how cleanup goes this spring and make sure that Ice Castles is carrying through on the good work they\u2019ve done all season,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cBut when you see the numbers impacting our community, it makes sense that we\u2019d continue a partnership. We\u2019re interesting in having conversations early this spring to determine if we can partner in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the town council decides that the ice castles are something they\u2019d like to see return this year, the company has made it clear that they\u2019re also on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly intend to return,\u201d said Davis. \u201cThis is a great place for us to be. We have a great relationship with the local community, and we like it. We really don\u2019t have any reason to look anywhere else in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crews work to take tear down the Ice Castles Monday, March 25, in Dillon.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com Just weeks ago hordes of visitors were pouring into Summit County to take in the frozen spires and colorfully illuminated passageways of the Dillon Ice Castles. Now, two weeks after closing, what remains is a somewhat somber reminder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-794169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 01:34:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}