The National Trail Parks and Recreation District’s future $7.5 million ice arena will be moved to a new site downtown, its third proposed location.

The ice rink, previously planned for the former Memorial Hall site and the new Ohio Valley Medical Center lots, will now move one block south to the former Haucke complex on West Main Street near Lowry Avenue.

“It gives us a better opportunity for cost savings,” said Leann Castillo, chief executive officer of NTPRD.

National Trail is also in talks on a possible partnership with a regional ice rink group, the Columbus-based OhioHealth Chiller Group, to operate the ice rink.

The ice rink is the last phase of the park district’s 10-year, $17 million capital campaign. Through the project, National Trail built both Carleton Davidson Stadium and Splash Zone Family Aquatic Center, as well as several smaller projects. A third of the $17 million came from a one-year, half-percent sales tax.

Castillo said the district will re-open the bidding process in late October and plans to begin construction in November. District leaders are still hoping to open the facility next fall.

The Haucke site, Castillo said, will provide more flexibility for building, especially considering topography, that will save money on construction. The Chiller group recommended that the ice rink doesn’t need to be on a main thoroughfare and moving the location one block south won’t make much of a difference.

“We’re still going to be downtown, we’re still going to be offering programs in the center of our community and we’ll be able to have some cost savings by doing this,” Castillo said.

The district recently said costs for the project are nearly $1.5 million more than estimated and two previous attempts for bids came in over budget. Castillo said the district will sell the old Memorial Hall site to close the funding gap and set up a future endowment for programs at the ice arena.

It still plans to incorporate parts of the facade and other artifacts from Memorial Hall into the design of the ice rink.

Tom Loftis of Midland Properties said the old Memorial Hall site — which NTPRD purchased for about $825,000 in 2010 — will be attractive for commercial use due to its proximity to the new Springfield Regional Medical Center. Midland will help the district put the site, 300 W. Main St., on the market in the coming months.

“Our intention is to work with them and get it on the market to generate as much as we can,” Loftis said.

The ice rink was initially planned where the Ohio Valley Medical Center surgical hospital is now located, and was later moved to the former Memorial Hall site.

The Haucke complex was purchased by the city in 2005. It used $400,000 in Clean Ohio grant money to demolish the buildings and re-mediate the downtown brownfield. In 2009, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued a covenant not to sue, approving the clean-up at the site.

City Manager Jim Bodenmiller said city leaders are still deciding whether to allow NTPRD to build on the city’s land or sell the property to the park district.

“We’ve talked about a couple of different scenarios,” Bodenmiller said. “We’re going to be fully cooperative. We’ll be supportive of them.”

The area has been ready for development for several years, city Community Development Director Shannon Meadows said. She’s happy to see the ice rink go on a former brownfield site, which National Trail had previously planned when it selected the first site.

“They basically gave up their (first) site for downtown development, and I think that’s important to understand,” Meadows said. “It’s a win-win on many sides.”

On Monday, the City Planning Board will vote on a right-of-way vacation of an alley on the new site of the ice rink.

“If you were out there, you wouldn’t even see it,” Castillo said.

Loftis, who’s worked closely on the ice rink project, said he believes the move is a good decision for the ice rink.

“It’s a good move in the sense that we’re trying to get our cost structure right,” Loftis said.

NTPRD has also been in talks for months on a partnership with the Chiller group, which is owned by the majority owner of the Columbus Blue Jackets. It operates five ice rinks in central Ohio, and is in discussions to operate the new arena in Springfield — the Blue Jackets’ second-largest market outside of Columbus.

The engineers building the new ice arena in downtown worked on the Chiller’s ice rinks in Columbus, Castillo said, and built a relationship working with them throughout the process.

“It’s a possibility that they may want to partner with us, which may be a huge benefit to us and the community because they already run successful ice programs,” Castillo said. “They know what they’re doing. They would bring a base of knowledge to Springfield and to the program that would take us years to catch up.”

National Trail remains excited for the project, she said, despite some negativity in the community on the project.

“A lot of people might not think it should be something that we have in Springfield, but until it’s here, people don’t know that they want it or need it,” Castillo said.

Castillo believes the ice rink will keep people who want to skate from driving out of town. The facility would also become a destination for people out of town and programs would be designed to accommodate all ages and skill levels.

“It’s a positive thing for our community and something that people will embrace once it’s here,” Castillo said.