An Odenton roller rink, formerly known as Wheels, has been purchased by Crofton-based Skate Zone and has been rebranded to fit.
Skate Zone owners Rob and Wendy Sherman say they pursued the new location after realizing they were overbooked at their first location and needed more space.
Rob Sherman said that they managed to catch one of Wheels’ previous owners, Pam Muegge, days before it was planned to be put up on the market. On social media, the Muegges cited a wish for retirement as the motive for a sale.
For the Shermans, running a skating center is all about bolstering the community, they say. The business is involved with local schools and participates in the nationwide Kids Skate Free program, which provides vouchers for admission, allowing parents to pay only for their children’s skate rentals.
“That’s really what it’s all about, too, is keeping skating in the community,” Rob Sherman said. “The kids need a place to come. They need a place where they can relax, they can feel comfortable. You know, they need a place that parents can feel safe bringing their kids to and dropping them off.”
They purchased the rink in late August and reopened in mid-September. During that time , they replaced the kitchen equipment, reinstated the arcade area that was closed by the previous owners, and added a prize redemption counter.
They bought the Crofton location, which opened in the mid-1970s, in 1996. This was after several years of being involved in the local skating community.
“We have been in this industry for a long time, not on the business side, but on the recreational side and the competitive side. We kind of stepped away from that for a little while and started a family,” Wendy Sherman said. After stepping in to help teach lessons later, the couple became more and more involved.
“We saw the business kind of sliding a little bit, so we contacted the owners and told them that, when they’re ready, we were interested in purchasing. And they said they weren’t ready at the time. But then a few months went by and they called us …” she added.
Since then, the couple says the Crofton rink has become multigenerational, now hiring employees who are the children of the rink’s employees when it was purchased.
Both rinks have various skating times throughout the week, including free skate time for everyone, 21-plus adult nights, and daytime stroll-and-rolls, which allow parents to bring their strollers and walk on the rink.
The Shermans are unsure if they want to expand beyond these two locations. Still, if they did, they said it would probably be in Calvert County, where they were originally looking to expand before the Wheels opportunity came along.
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