"The one thing you learn real fast with outdoor ice is guess who's in charge?" John Kirby asked the crowd at the Meadows Park ribbon cutting in February. The crowd answered for him: "Mother nature."
He was explaining why Lake St. Louis waited so long for its rink. The plan had been to open in 2024, but "we just had so much rain in early November and it uh kind of put us sideways," Kirby said. The rink finally opened in the middle of February 2026, near the end of the season it was designed for. That makes the coming winter the first one where Meadows Park can run its full schedule. Nobody in town, including the people who built it, has seen what a full season on this ice looks like.
Last Winter Was a Preview, Not a Season
The rink took years to arrive:
- July 25, 2024: Ground broke on the project, which was then called Mothership Live, south of BC's Kitchen off Technology Drive.
- Early November 2024: Heavy rain derailed the first planned opening.
- March 2025: St. Louis Magazine reported that the planned 8,000-square-foot rink would run, weather permitting, from November 15 through March 1.
- February 12, 2026: The Western St. Charles County Chamber of Commerce held the ribbon cutting for the rink's grand opening.
Run those dates against the planned window. November 15 to March 1 is about fifteen weeks of skating. After a February 12 opening, about two and a half weeks of that window remained. Last winter showed off the facility, but it never had the chance to run a real season.
Two cautions about the planned window. The November 15 start and the 8,000-square-foot size come from pre-opening reporting in March 2025, so they're targets the developer described, not a published 2026–27 schedule. When this post went up on October 7, 2026, we had not found a public opening date, session hours, or admission and rental prices for this winter. The city's rink line, 636-622-8211, is the place to get those.
What the Park Holds When It's Cold
Meadows Park sits at 830 Fountain Grass Drive and covers just over two acres. According to the description posted with the Chamber's ribbon-cutting video, winter there looks like this:
- Ice rink: Public skating, pond hockey games, and other winter activities.
- Three fire pits: For skaters and spectators during the skating season.
- Two pavilions: Open for public use.
- Turfed playground: Closed during the winter season.
- Splash pad: Open Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.
The playground closure matters for families with small children who aren't skating yet, since the fire pits and pavilions are the winter options for them. The pre-opening plans also listed a skate shop. We haven't confirmed whether it's operating, which is one more question for the rink line.
When the ice comes out, the same slab becomes three pickleball courts. The park doesn't go dormant in spring. It swaps one crowd for another on the same footprint.
A City Park Inside a Shopping Center
Meadows Park looks like part of The Meadows, so it's easy to assume it's a mall amenity. The ownership says otherwise. Cohen Equities donated one acre of land to the City of Lake Saint Louis for the rink, pickleball courts, splash pad and playground. In July 2024, then-Mayor Jason Law told FOX 2 the city would invest about $4 million and own part of the property, including the rink. Mid Rivers Newsmagazine described the project as a public-private partnership among the city, developer Jeff Parrish and Cohen Equities.
The park's page is on the city's own website, filed under Parks & Recreation's Parks & Facility Rentals. Parks Director Darren Milton said the park had been talked about for ten years. He called it "a park built for the community and planned for year-round activities."
The shopping center's side of the partnership is just as clear about what it wanted. Teddy Chattah, Cohen Equities' asset manager for The Meadows, told St. Louis Magazine:
"Consumer trends highlight a growing preference for malls and shopping centers to offer unique, immersive experiences over mere transactions."
That's why the rink sits where it does. The city gets a public park with winter programming, and the restaurants around it get people on foot in the months that are usually slow for an outdoor shopping center. Meir Cohen of Cohen Equities projected that the full complex would draw 400,000 to 500,000 visitors a year. That figure assumed the whole complex was built, and only the public park exists so far.
The Handoff From Concerts to Ice
The Meadows events calendar has three free SummerFest concerts left at the clock tower plaza this fall: The Machines on October 8, Twenty Plus on October 15, and Richie Callison on November 1. If the rink holds to its planned November 15 start, the plaza goes from live music to open skating in about two weeks. That would give The Meadows public programming almost all year, with no long gap between the last concert and the first skate.
Opening day showed what an evening at the rink can look like. BC's Kitchen handed out free hot chocolate, the Southern Grace's coffee truck was parked on site, and a donation from the farmers market covered admission for the day. Milton also invited people back to the farmers market "starting in April." The free admission that day came from a one-time donation, so it doesn't tell you what regular admission will cost.
For dinner after skating, the newest choice in town is Joey B's at 6247 Ronald Reagan Drive. It's the Gianino Family of Restaurants' first location in St. Charles County, and it opened in July with a gelato recipe from Tony Gianino's grandmother that's made only for the Lake Saint Louis location, according to Sauce Magazine. Its posted hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Why the Calendar Is a Target and the Forecast Decides
Kirby's line about Mother Nature wasn't just a joke at the ceremony. It describes how this rink works. Outdoor ice depends on the forecast, so an early-season warm spell or a week of rain can close the sheet even after the season has officially started. The project already lost one opening to November rain. Even before anything opened, the planned window was described as "weather permitting."
Last winter's late opening left little data to plan around. We found no public reporting on attendance from February and March 2026, and no record of weather closures that season. Nobody has published how many skating days a typical St. Charles County winter gives this rink, because it has never had a typical winter. What 2026–27 delivers will set the baseline.
That's why calling 636-622-8211 before you go makes more sense here than it would at an indoor rink. It's especially worth doing in the shoulder weeks of late November and late February, when skating depends most on temperature.
What Hasn't Been Built Yet
The park is the first phase. The second was meant to be bigger. St. Louis Magazine's March 2025 report said later phases were planned for the 2026–27 holiday season and would add a hospitality and sports entertainment complex, an indoor/outdoor event lawn, local dining, and space for concerts. Earlier groundbreaking coverage described a two-story indoor recreational complex.
We found no newer public timeline. The Meadows' own project page still says "coming soon," but its forecast for the first phase reads 2025, so it hasn't been updated since the park opened. The city's Planning & Zoning agendas for August 6 and October 8, 2026 don't list the project. As of early October 2026, the public record doesn't show whether the second phase will arrive this holiday season, later, or in a different form. This winter, the rink, fire pits and pavilions are what you can count on at Meadows Park.
If you live near Fountain Grass Drive or anywhere a short drive from The Meadows, projects like this rink are part of what your home sits next to. Reed-Koppel Collective keeps track of what's opening, what's still on paper, and how both show up in local values. Get your free home valuation, and we'll show you where your home stands this winter.
