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An old winter pastime has returned to downtown Rockville with a new ice skating rink in the middle of Town Square.

The rink, made of a weather-resistant synthetic surface and not ice, sits in the Town Square plaza between Maryland Avenue and Gibbs Street.

The "time-honored tradition" is meant to complement the mixed-use center's restaurants and retail stores, according to a statement from Robin McBride, chief operating officer for Federal Realty Investment Trust of the Mid-Atlantic region.

Federal Realty manages the restaurant and retail portion of Town Square, bounded by Rockville Pike, East Middle Lane, North Washington Street and Beall Avenue in the heart of the city.

The wintertime activity returns to downtown Rockville after decades without one. Burt Hall, Rockville's director of recreation and parks, said there was once an ice skating rink – made of real ice – built sometime in the 1970s behind the Executive Office Building on Monroe Street, a few blocks away from Town Square.

"It was not covered and it did not have a strong enough refrigeration system to keep the ice solid so on warm days it was a shallow swimming pool, so they finally gave up," Hall said.

Hall said he thinks the rink closed in the 1980s.

The new artificial skating rink will not have that problem because it is made of a specially-formulated plastic surface with no need for refrigeration systems, according to a Web site that produces them.

The Town Square rink opened on Christmas Eve and will stay open through March. The rink is open 3-10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for children and skates can be rented for $2. Tickets and skate rentals can be purchased at Skate Shack at 100 Gibbs St.