Indoor Snowboarding Park Proposed for O.C.

In what would be the first-of-its-kind attraction in the United States, a group that includes Gotcha Sportswear plans to build a giant indoor snowboarding park at the proposed Sportstown complex near Anaheim Stadium.

The $40-million, four-story structure would be known as Gotcha Glacier and would also contain a skateboard park, roller hockey rink and a gallery of shops and restaurants.

Glacier Sports Center of America, a San Juan Capistrano company headed by Brad Kinney, is in the final stages of negotiations with Forest City Development of Cleveland, which is overseeing the development of Sportstown.

Contrarian Group, a Newport Beach company owned by former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, is helping arrange financing for the project, which would take about two years to build.

Currently, the world’s only indoor snow mountain is in Japan.

“We got into the snowboarding business at the grass-roots level and bring a real authenticity to this project,” said Marvin Winkler, chairman and chief executive of Gotcha, the Irvine sportswear designer. “The future of retailing is moving toward entertainment and event-driven venues, and this is the direction we want to go as a company.”

As proposed, Gotcha Glacier would contain a 100-foot mountain and two 250-yard half-tube snowboard runs built to meet the competitive requirements of the International Snowboarding Federation and the Olympics. A 1,500-seat spectator area is also planned, with the hope of making the project a stop on the professional snowboarding tour.

* ON THICK ICE: Even outside the Olympics, ice skating is booming. D1