Erie area's Presque Isle Skating & Event Center has new owners and a new name

Presque Isle Skating & Event Center, a 17,000-square-foot skating rink on West Lake Road, has a new name and new owners who plan to make some changes.

Jeni Lanier, who already owns two roller rinks, one in North Carolina and another in Indiana, closed recently on a deal to purchase the Millcreek Township rink from owner Israel Rivera.

Lanier paid $425,000 to buy the building, which was built in 1949, according to a deed on file at the Erie County Courthouse.

But it will be married couple Mikhayla and Sierra Dugan who will be living in Erie and running the day-to-day operations of a business they have renamed Gem City Skate.

The couple, who worked together at a rink Lanier owns in Jacksonville, North Carolina, said Lanier began last summer to float the idea of purchasing a new rink and becoming partners with them in the venture.

A scan of roller rinks for sale would lead them 700 miles to Erie, a place that neither of them knew anything about.

After a few months of sizing up Presque Isle Skating and its financials, the Dugans have signed a lease with Lanier that will give them the option to either purchase the business or extend the lease at the end of five years.

A winding road to Erie

Mikhayla Dugan found herself working in the roller skating business last summer after working for 10 years in the restaurant industry, including some time running the test kitchen for a large regional restaurant chain.

Before she began a career in roller skating, Sierra Dugan served for five years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The rink in North Carolina was much smaller than the one at 3162 West Lake Road in Millcreek Township.

Mikhayla Dugan said they were both excited about "starting a rink of their own and doing it on a much larger scale."

Changes are coming

The Dugans say they have plans to update the building, the equipment and the way of doing business.

"I don't think it was living up to its potential," Mikhayla Dugan said. "The previous owner was offering birthday parties and field trips, but not to the extent that we had done at our previous location."

The first big change for the business was the name. Mikhayla Dugan said she liked the connection the old name gave the business to Presque Isle State Park.

But a bit of internet research led them to the Erie nickname of Gem City — a reference to Erie's status of Gem of the Great Lakes — which they liked even better.

"I loved the idea of it as soon as I saw it," Mikhayla Dugan said. "We really wanted to play to the connection to the city. We have noticed how tight-knit it is here. That is something that we want to represent."

Physical changes are coming as well. Sierra Dugan said the rink is overdue for the hardwood floor to be redone. That project, which is expected to cost more than $30,000, should happen soon.

By working around the clock, the project should only take about four days, Sierra Dugan said.

"The floors need some major love," she said, adding that carpeted areas also need to be replaced.

The new operators say they also plan to replace "the fleet of skates," which have seen better days. That's expected to cost between $50,000 and $60,000.

Other changes won't cost so much money. The Dugans say they want to bring back the limbo and other games traditionally associated with roller rinks, along with a modern sensibility.

At some point, they said, Gem City could add space for an arcade.

A warm welcome

Sierra Dugan said they're feeling good about the future and encouraged by the reaction from customers.

Even though they just opened the doors last week for business, the Dugans said they've already signed on as the home rink for Erie Roller Derby and are excited about the connections they've made.

As lifelong southerners, Sierra Dugan said they arrived in Erie with certain expectations of how they might be received.

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"It's been a breath of fresh air," she said. "We have not met a single soul who has been rude or disrespectful."

That warm welcome has both of them making plans to be in Erie for the long haul and focused on their business.

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"We have been here every day," Sierra Dugan said. "We are trying to put everything we have into this. We want to give the community the skating rink they deserve."

It wasn't a certainty that the longtime roller rink would continue as one, said Cherie Bishop, who, along with Jim Barbour, handled the sale for Keller Williams Reality.

"We had people who were interested, but didn't want to keep it as a rink," she said.

Contact Jim Martin at jmartin@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie PA area roller skating rink sold to buyer from North Carolina