A beloved skating rink in Temple Hills, Maryland, nearly closed its doors for good in April — but after an outpouring of community support, the rink will remain open for business.

Temple Hills Skating Rink initially announced that it would close its doors April 5, but that date was pushed back to the end of April while the rink managers and landlord negotiated the venue’s lease renewal and monthly rent.

“The negotiation wasn’t working well in our favor, and what we [are able to] afford,” says Lashon Andrews, who’s been general manager of the rink for the past three years. So the rink planned to permanently close its doors, until the community spoke up by circulating a petition and posting about the rink on social media, she says.

“[The landlord] realized it’s a pillar of the community and wanted to be a community-friendly landlord and negotiate with us on a price that worked,” says Andrews. Berman Enterprises, the property owner, decided on lowering the rent from its initial ask to a more affordable rate and settled on a one year lease, according to Andrews. Berman Enterprises did not respond to DCist’s request for comment.

After the initial announcement about the rink’s closure, some patrons posted about the venue on social media, which has been open for more than 40 years. Andrews says some fans reached out to “politicians and the media” to advocate for the rink.

For some, the rink — once known as Crystal’s Skate Palace — is a part of their childhood memories. Locals of all ages celebrate their birthdays at the rink, while others faithfully skate each week, practicing tricks and personalizing their wheels with custom lights and paint. The rink is known to boom with the sounds of go-go bands and chart-topping hits to create an atmosphere for skaters to roll all day and night long.

“It’s our life story,” local skater Tonya Williams told Washingtonian about the skate palace in 2016. She celebrated her 59th birthday at the rink by crowning herself with a tiara and lacing up her skates. “I am not going to stop until I die.”

Since the community spoke up in support of the rink, Andrew says, the lease has been extended for a year, until August 2022. She hopes that the landlord will negotiate a five-year lease.

The price of rent increased after Berman Enterprises purchased the strip mall, located at 3100 Branch Avenue, in 2020, according to Andrews. “[Berman] purchased the whole mall, [and] they did a lot of renovations,” she says. “They want to get their money back, and I get it but you’re trying to do this during a pandemic.”

The skating rink has been operating at partial capacity to comply with COVID restrictions. Andrews says that pre-pandemic, the rink welcomed between 600 and 1,000 visitors each week. During the pandemic, there were 200 skaters weekly. Since the skate palace announced it would stay open, about 1,500 skaters come out weekly, she says. (Currently, COVID restrictions limit the space to operating at 50% capacity.)

Andrews says that she’s hopeful about the fate of the rink.

“We’re just happy that [Berman Enterprises is] working with us,” says Andrews. “We just want to continue to have a long term relationship, landlord and tenant, and everything to be profitable … [so that] the community is still happy, the employees are still happy, and they’re happy. It’s a win-win.”