Drawing assist in achieving ice rink goals

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This article was published 27/12/2024 (626 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When he was growing up in North Kildonan, J. Brian Blahey played as much hockey as he could. He was a centre for the Gateway Blades, River East Royals and River East Marauders.

While he never had aspirations to play in the NHL — “I knew early on that that was not going to be a thing” — he contributes to the sport today using his expertise as a mechanical engineer.

Blahey runs JBB Consultants & Engineers Inc., a full-service HVAC, mechanical, energy services and design consultancy and project management firm he founded in 1999.

One of the company’s fortes is skating facilities. About 65 per cent of Blahey’s business comes from the United States ice rink market. He’s involved with upgrading or building hockey rinks, curling recreation centres and AHL- and NHL-ready facilities.

Blahey participated in the 2019 renovation of the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Ohio, home of the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, which involved replacing a refrigeration system that used R22, a potentially harmful chemical, with a refrigeration system that uses CO2. The new system allows for better heat transfer and improved energy efficiency, which translates into lower operating costs.

He’s also done R22 refrigerant and energy retrofit comparative study reports for the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C., (home of the Carolina Hurricanes) and Nationwide Arena in Ohio (where the Columbus Blue Jackets play).

Closer to home, he’s spent the last couple years serving as a design engineer on the Steinbach Event Centre, a $70-million facility that is just weeks away from opening its doors. He’s also the refrigeration consultant for the ice rink replacement scheduled for the Brandon Community Sportsplex.

A few years ago, he was the prime consultant when Dakota Community Centre replaced its ice plant, retrofitted its boiler and replaced its heat reclamation system.

One of the things Blahey most enjoys about his work is identifying problems and coming up with multiple solutions for clients to choose from.

“I’m a trusted adviser, not a salesman,” Blahey said. “I’m there to advise and advocate for them, not tell them what to buy.”

Blahey thought following his father’s footsteps into education was a foregone conclusion until one of his Winnipeg high school teachers told him he had other options.

He enrolled in the advanced placement classes River East Collegiate offered and when he excelled in math and science, a physics teacher encouraged him to consider a career as an engineer.

He graduated from the University of Manitoba with a bachelor of science in engineering in 1991 and added an MBA from the same institution 16 years later.

His career has included stints working in Seattle as the international sales manager at Hussmann Corp., which manufactures, sells and installs refrigeration systems and display equipment for food retailers; and HVAC manufacturer Trane, where he was an international account executive responsible for retail giant Costco.

He values those experiences, but is happy to have his own company now.

“I always felt like I was just sort of part of a cog in the wheel and it was something that always drew me to being my own boss,” Blahey said.

He hires subcontractors and collaborators when needed and works in his Transcona neighbourhood office with Bruno, a 12-year-old beagle-basset hound cross, at his side.

Blahey’s intimate knowledge of ice rink refrigeration systems and dasher board systems make him extremely valuable, according to Peter Keelan, partner at MSKTD & Associates, an engineering firm in Indiana.

Blahey is a consultant on one of MSKTD’s current projects: an ice rink replacement at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne.

“(His knowledge is) very specialized; there aren’t many consultants that do what he does in North America,” Keelan said. “After vetting a number of other candidates and checking his references, we settled on Brian due to his reputation in the industry and he’s proven to be very valuable.”

Dave Loverock agrees. Formerly an executive at Jet Ice, a Bradford, Ont.-based company that offers a variety of products and services for hockey arenas, Loverock has collaborated with Blahey on a few projects over the last 30 years and describes him as a well-respected engineer.

“The industry’s stacked with people that care and it’s the people that care that you want to deal with,” Loverock said. “They’re not driven by the dollar, they’re driven by actually wanting to help the industry and he is one of those characters.”

As he looks to the future, Blahey hopes to add a partner so he can keep growing his business. He’s moved to other cities in the past for work, but has always returned to Winnipeg.

“There’s a whole big wide world out there and we are in a globalized economy,” Blahey said. “You don’t have to depend on the local economy to do very well. So why not live where you’re from?”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca