Bowl and Skate wants new lease on life

LYNNWOOD

Lynnwood Bowl and Skate employee Matt McCoy has worked at the city’s first and oldest bowling alley and skating rink since 2006.

From where he stands, behind the bowling alley’s check-in counter, McCoy said he’s noticed fewer people turn up at Lynnwood Bowl and Skate, 6210 200th St. SW, than when he started.

“We’re definitely not getting waiting lists like we used to,” he said. “If it were my place, it would be a straight-up sports bar. I’d get a better juke box and have live bands.”

Bowling alleys and skating rinks aren’t the social centers they once were, but Lynnwood Bowl and Skate’s owners say they’re not giving up on the idea that bowling and skating can still be a popular entertainment option.

Owners Scott Shapiro and Jim Potter, partners in the Seattle real estate development firm NABE, LLC, say they didn’t buy the bankrupt business in a foreclosure sale two years ago to lose money.

“It’s a good property in an area that’s continuing to improve,” Shapiro said of the Bowl and Skate, a Lynnwood-area institution since 1958.

On Monday, March 10, the City Council unanimously approved a special land use agreement that Shapiro and Potter say will help them make the historic Bowl and Skate the kind of destination recreation facility it once was.

That agreement, called a Planned Unit Development (PUD), will allow the duo to build a 6,000-square-foot, single-story retail building on the northern edge of the building’s north parking lot, just off 200th Street Southwest. The new, hot phrase in urban planning is “curb appeal” and Potter says placing a retail building close to the sidewalk will make the block more attractive and enticing to passers-by.

Their hope is that by bringing a sit-down coffee shop or other retail establishments to their property, they’ll be able to offer another reason for people to spend time and money at the Bowl and Skate.

To date, they say, they’ve invested about $1 million into refurbishing the building. They’ve added connecting doors between the roller rink and bowling alley, connected the restaurant better to the bowling alley, spruced up the rest rooms and installed a new, computerized scoreboard and refreshment control center.

In Seattle, bowling alleys have been shutting down, not opening up.

So what makes these two men think things will be any different in Lynnwood?

“The business is not the same as it was 30 years ago, before the age of the Internet and the things we have today, but for this location, the highest and best use is to continue to keep it as a bowling alley and roller rink,” Shapiro said. Besides, he added, land values in Seattle have risen so quickly that they’ve driven owners to sell.

“It probably wouldn’t make sense to build one from scratch,” Shapiro said. “But if one’s existing and it’s run well in a large enough location, like Lynnwood, then it can be a viable business.”

Council members expressed some concerns about the loss of about 17 parking spaces and pedestrian safety. In selling the concept to the council, Potter and Shapiro worked hard to convince them that the loss of some parking spaces would not hurt the business.