Lanes to re-open after facelift

WASILLA -- The Valley's only bowling center will receive a half million dollar face-lift and should re-open in December, according to Bob Stevens owner of Valley Industries LLC, the company that closed a real estate deal on the property last week.

"We're looking at about 75 days," Stevens said.

The 32-lane bowling center originally opened in 1985. Stevens purchased the property from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), the state-owned corporation that foreclosed on the bowling center last March. In April, AIDEA attempted to auction the property with a minimum bid of $1.5 million. No serious bidders showed and AIDEA set about marketing the property.

Stevens' company purchased the property for $1,135,000, according to an AIDEA press release, which also said that other offers were made.

"AIDEA received six offers to purchase the facility, but not all the buyers were going to continue to operate as a bowling center," AIDEA's executive director Jim McMillan said in the press release.

AIDEA officials did not release details of offers that were not accepted, but both AIDEA and Stevens confirmed that the Valley Industries offer was not the highest bid.

"I think AIDEA genuinely wanted somebody who was committed to turning it into a bowling alley with the proper investment," Stevens said.

It's actually a big commitment. Big enough that Stevens is going from owner to tenant before the place opens.

"I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize that a $500,000 investment would be necessary," Stevens said. "I had to bring another person in to buy the real estate so that I could afford the renovations. You can't just sweep the floor and re-open."

Stevens made an offer on the property last spring. He didn't know anything about bowling -- he bowled a score of 60 last week -- but he planned a trip to a bowling industry convention in New Orleans in June and a tour of bowling centers in the western states to make up for his lack of knowledge. Stevens said AIDEA accepted his offer a day before he and his girlfriend Tinamarie Buffington were on the airplane to New Orleans.

"Basically, we learned how to spend a lot of money on bowling equipment and how to get free beads," Stevens said of the New Orleans convention.

"And we learned that Bourbon Street smells like stale beer," Buffington interjected.

Besides the AIDEA debt, Stevens said he had to pay off debt on the bowling center fixtures like the pin setting machines. AIDEA only owned the building and the land underneath. Stevens also needs to purchase and transfer a liquor license to the center.

"I have my finger on one, but I don't want to say where it is because I haven't applied for the transfer," he said.

That's something Stevens has experience in. He once owned a company called Restaurant Savers, that would sell and install used restaurant fixtures. He has also purchased and sold liquor licenses and occasionally operated restaurants. In the early 1990s he was involved in Hell Fighter's, a bar and grill in downtown Anchorage named for the John Wayne movie in which the heroes were oilfield firemen.

"I made my living setting up bars and restaurants," he said.

This remodel will focus mostly on the bowling side of the operation. The pin setters will be refurbished and have new solid state electronics. New ball lifts and seating will be added, as will new monitors for score keeping. One of the most important features will be synthetic lanes, which Stevens said will provide a more consistent surface from one lane to the next.

Stevens' investment is part of a national trend, according to Bowling Proprietor's Association of America president Jack Moran.

"That's what you find all over the country. Centers are investing in capital equipment like the synthetic lanes, automatic scoring and better seating."

Moran is owner operator of Roseland Bowl in Canandaigua, New York. Roseland is a 64-lane center that opened in 1964. Constant re-investment is what keeps a bowling center successful over the long haul, according to Moran.

"In order to stay with the times we try to put in a modernization package every four or five years," Moran said, adding that renovations could be new lanes or seating or food service.

Synthetic lanes have been around since the 1970s. There are several manufacturers that supply synthetic lanes. New synthetic lanes can be built from a truss foundation up, but Stevens is using overlays that are installed and serviced by the supplier and use the existing woods lanes as a base.

Moran said bowlers actually prefer the synthetic lanes, even at an established bowling center like Roseland.

"I've had synthetic lanes in my center for approximately 4-1/2 years," Moran said. "And yes, my bowlers were cautious at first. Now they love it, and they really won't bowl anyplace with a urethane surface. The ball reaction is much smoother."

Bowlers should also get a more consistent bowl from day-to-day and lane-to-lane with the synthetics, according to Chris Clapper who operates Center Bowl in Anchorage and is executive director of Alaska Bowling Proprietors Association. Center Bowl installed synthetic overlays about 15 years ago.

"[Bowlers] may not want to be next to a wall or next to a post, but as far as having an unlucky lane that's not a factor," Clapper said.

Stevens also plans to offer "extreme" bowling after the remodel. Known in some centers as "neon bowling," it's basically a sound and light show added to the lanes. In the early 1990s bowling centers started adding shoes, balls and pins that glow under black light -- what seemed like a short-lived fad at the time has been embraced and is still growing. Clapper installed it this year at Center Bowl.

"That's what people thought, but it's not [a fad]. It's got great entertainment value and people are enjoying it and they keep coming back," Clapper said.