The NHL Seattle organization plans to build a three-rink, 180K SF practice facility and headquarters on the east side of Northgate Mall. The $70M project will not only serve as the training facility for Seattle’s potential expansion hockey team, but will also be open to the public and to youth hockey teams.

Mayor Jenny Durkan spoke at Monday's press conference announcing the facility. She touted that the rinks will have three sheets of ice, a requirement to host national hockey tournaments.

The organization expects that it is only a matter of time before it is allowed to purchase an NHL expansion team for the Seattle market. The sport’s board of governors will vote on NHL Seattle’s request at its next meeting on Dec. 3-4. Last week, the NHL’s executive committee voted 9-0 in favor of recommending NHL Seattle be allowed to purchase an expansion franchise.

If acquired, the new Seattle professional hockey team would play its games in the soon-to-be-renovated KeyArena and practice at the Northgate facility. The rinks will be new construction somewhere on the east side of the current Northgate Mall complex. A specific site has not been determined, but will part of the mall's major renovation plans.

The ice rinks, set to be complete in 2020, will be an anchor for Northgate Mall, which will undergo a major redevelopment into a mixed-use property in the coming years. Simon Property Group is in the planning process of adding between 500K and 700K SF of retail space and a similar amount of office space to its existing Northgate Mall. In addition, the mall will include several hundred units of both housing and hospitality.