CORNER BROOK - The current owner of the Corner Brook Centre Bowl says it's highly unlikely a new owner would use the facility for anything but a bowling alley.
Darren Brake owns K.S.A.B. Construction Ltd., which also has a realty arm that purchased and renovated the former Columbus Club on Reid Street into a condominium building.
From the start, Brake allayed any fears that K.S.A.B. would turn the 12-lane bowling alley located in the building's basement - the only bowling alley in Corner Brook - into condos.
Now that Townsite Condominiums are complete and being sold, K.S.A.B. has put the Centre Bowl on the selling block, according to a recent advertisement in The Western Star.
"We're construction people, not bowling alley people, and it kind of takes someone who knows the bowling alley business much better," Brake said. "We purchased that building for the condos and we had no idea how feasible the bowling alley would be.
"It's a very feasible business, but it's not something we want to manage or even own."
Brake said K.S.A.B. is planning another project that will be even more ambitious than the Columbus Club renovation.
"We want to move our focus from running the Corner Brook Centre Bowl to concentrate on this new project," he said, adding that details of the project will be released early in the new year.
Improvments made
When K.S.A.B. bought the building, the bowling alley had just been refurbished with new synthetic lanes and an automated scoring system. Since the purchase, the alley has a new entrance, bar, countertops and space to hold birthday parties or other special events.
Brake said a new owner would be restricted in what he or she could put back in the space if it was decided to shut down the bowling alley.
"You wouldn't be able to put condos or apartments there," he said. "The site doesn't have enough space for parking to meet city regulations."
Besides surely inciting the wrath of local bowlers, Brake said it wouldn't make sense financially to buy the building to remove the assets already in place. He said it would cost more than $100,000 to replace each of the dozen lanes.
"If someone was going to spend the money to buy it, I don't think they would take the bowling alley out," he said.
