Ground Is Broken for Skating Center

Sledgehammers chipped away Thursday morning at the worn facade of the old Panorama Bowl as politicians, business people and community groups celebrated the groundbreaking of a new roller- and ice-skating center on Van Nuys Boulevard.

The $2.5-million, 50,000-square-foot Recreation World Panorama City is scheduled to open early next year after the building has been refurbished and retrofitted to meet current earthquake standards. The center will include two rinks--one for ice skating and another for in-line and roller-skating--a snack bar, arcade, lounge, retail store and locker facilities for hockey players, said Carole Sumner Krechman, chief executive officer of Recreation World.

“This is a great project,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district will include the skating center. “We’re taking something that was an eyesore, a blight on the community, and transforming it into a great family entertainment center.”

Wachs, unlike Councilman Richard Alarcon, declined to don in-line skates and join kids from the Blythe Street Prevention Project in a game of roller hockey on a makeshift rink built for the occasion in the parking lot.

“One thing that’s really missing in this part of the Valley is private recreational facilities,” said Alarcon, whose district borders the site at 8750 Van Nuys Blvd., where the center will be built. “This will help fill that void.”

Recreation World, which also owns Corbin Bowl in Tarzana and 12 other skating facilities nationwide, received a $350,000 Community Redevelopment Agency earthquake-recovery loan from the city to help with the project.

Cynthia Llevenas, who works with the Blythe Street Prevention Project, said the center will offer neighborhood kids much-needed alternatives in choosing how to spend their free time. Recreation World, she said, has agreed to offer discounts to groups like hers whose members would otherwise be unable to afford the costs associated with skating in rinks.

“The kids are so excited it’s unbelievable,” Llevenas said. “They can walk or ride their bikes; it’s right in their neighborhood. They feel like it’s for them.”