fb-pixel Skip to main content

TD Garden to get a $70 million facelift

An artist’s rendering of what the TD Garden pro shop would look like after the planned renovations.

Change is coming to TD Garden.

Beginning this summer, the multipurpose arena, home to the Bruins, Celtics, and numerous other events, will undergo a privately funded $70 million renovation that is expected to be finished within two years.

Delaware North Companies, the Buffalo-based owner and operator of the Garden, is backing the development aimed at improving fan experience as well as expanding the arena’s retail and office space.

Among the ambitious upgrades: a relocation and expansion of the Bruins’ Proshop; an overhaul of the concourses on levels four and seven; and renovations of the Garden’s concessions and the Legends Club, the arena’s largest private hospitality space, which houses the Celtics’ Courtside club and is open to eligible Bruins and Celtics season-ticket holders.

Advertisement



“It’s our goal to really set the industry standard, the high-water mark, for fan experience,” Charlie Jacobs, principal for Delaware North Companies and the Bruins, told the Globe.

“And these renovations over the next 24 months I hope will really transform and bring the Garden to the forefront — to set the market standard, if you will — for fan experience, both in-game and also really from the moment when a customer exits their car and begins to enter our facility.”

Jacobs stressed that the timeline for the project’s completion is somewhat flexible, but the concourse renovation is scheduled to begin after the Bruins’ playoff run this summer. (The NHL playoffs are scheduled to open April 16.)

The Proshop, currently located on the west end of the North Station concourse near the Garden’s box office, will be relocated to Level 2, where it will double in retail space, from 2,800 square feet to more than 6,000 square feet.

“Given the foot traffic that we have in our current Proshop and what I think we need to accommodate, I think it’s really needed,” Jacobs said.

Advertisement



TD Garden opened in 1995 and the concourses are nearly two decades old, to which Jacobs said, “It’s time for a complete refurbishment.”

They will offer expanded new drink and concessions options along with renovated and modernized concourses for fans to gather during events.

Along with aesthetic renovations, they will also work toward completing the final phase that will offer free arena-wide wireless Internet to all fans; that project should be finished by the start of the 2014-15 NHL season.

“We’re really changing everything from floor to ceiling — no exaggeration,” Jacobs said.

“Level 4 will be our main focus this summer and the balcony [Level 7] will be our main focus in 2015, and that [includes] floor treatments to the walls to graphics to Wi-Fi — again, [we’re] just trying to set the industry standard for what we believe to be the best hospitality in the business.”

Renovations to concessions and the Legends Club are still in the architectural planning stages, but Jacobs said they will be “radically redone” and that they hope they’ll be completed by this fall.

***

DETAILS OF TD GARDEN OVERHAUL

As provided by Charlie Jacobs, principal for Delaware North Companies and the Bruins:

THE BASICS

■   Privately financed $70 million renovation project, with two-year timeline

■   Continued investment in New England’s Premier Sports and Entertainment Arena from Jacobs Family

■   Focus on fan experience

■   Expanding business, outgrowing original footprint (retail and office)

PROSHOP

■   Relocated to Level 2 turnstiles and part of current Bruins/Garden office space

Advertisement



■   New ProShop doubles retail space (from 2,800 to more than 6,000 square feet)

■   Partnership with Reebok, part of the Adidas Group, the authentic outfitter of the NHL and NBA

■   New entrance, updated look and feel, ease traffic flow and increase accessibility for fans

■   Anticipated completion Dec 2014

LOGE AND BALCONY CONCOURSES

■   Both concourses will be completely renovated to offer fans new and improved food and beverage options along with a more modern common space to gather during events.

■   Loge concourse construction begins this summer, balcony concourse next summer.

■ Along with all the aesthetic renovations and improvements, simultaneous upgrades to the wired technology infrastructure and completing the final phase of arena-wide wireless implementation (to be completed by start of next season).

CONCESSIONS, LEGENDS AND COURTSIDE CLUB

■   The projects are in final planning stages. Plans to announce the specific vision and tentative time line for these specific areas will be shared in the coming months.


Baxter Holmes can be reached at baxter.holmes@globe.com