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The historic Palo Alto Bowl in south Palo Alto will get a new owner May 1 and its lease is being extended to 2014, according to new owner Rhythm Smith and a representative of the San Jose-based Barry Swenson Builder.
“We’ve extended the lease,” Aaron Barger, senior development manager at Swenson, confirmed Tuesday when asked about a reported delay in redevelopment of the site at 4309 El Camino Real.
Rhythm Smith, currently general manager of the bowling alley, told the Weekly that she has purchased the business from current owner Rex Golovic, who operates two other bowling alleys, in San Mateo and Daly City.
She said the lease-extension arrangements have been completed and that she will become owner as of May 1.
The Thai Garden restaurant in front of the bowling alley is part of the business and will remain, she said.
Smith said she does not know how many children have had birthday and other parties or events at the bowling alley over the years — “tons of ’em.”
The development plan had been to replace the half-century-old bowling alley and Thai Garden restaurant — itself a longtime community landmark — with a 167-room hotel and 26 three-story townhouses, with a pedestrian/bike path along the rear of the property.
Barger said the economy is a significant factor in the extension of the lease, which was being finalized Tuesday. “We are not ready to build yet, anyway, and it’s a good thing to keep the bowling alley there,” he said.
The existing lease would have expired at the end of April, he said.
The City Council approved the development Dec. 14 by a 7-2 vote, despite last-minute appeals from several bowlers to save it. Council members expressed empathy toward those protesting the closure but said the project meets the terms of a rezoning of the site about three years earlier. Construction would have begun this fall, a representative of the owners said at the Dec. 14 meeting.
“When the economy turns around we will proceed with the project,” Barger told the Weekly. If the economy warrants it there are provisions to end the lease a bit before 2014, with adequate notice to the bowling-alley owner, he said.
Amy French, manager of current planning for Palo Alto, said the site-and-design approval for the project is good for two years and can be extended, so the city approval of the development would remain in effect.
Yeah! Thai Garden will continue! Yum!
You live on SSI, and your complaining about the rich who pay taxes that pay for you to live on SSI?
this place is crazy expensive. i relize it is a big building and rent is alot but i wanted to take my daughter 6 and her friend 8 my wife and myself, even working around the bowling alleys schuedule and specials there was no way to not spend $100 for 2 hours of bowling. ridiculous! we went roller skating which is also a big building abd it cost 4 of us 20 bucks for as much skating as we wanted. on another note is the thai garden good? i always wanted to check it out.
@ kevin you fat bowling ball how are you? how is the shoe biz
I went to the Palo Alto Bowl after playing bowling on the Wii – I’d only been twice ever to a bowling alley in my life and remembered heavy balls and a hole that was too small for me. At Palo Alto Bowl I was given a the right size ball and had fun by myself. If you could somehow link it to the Wii community it might be a winner!
angela what the hell are you talking about? there is like 1000 balls at every alley and if one does not fit properly you just go grab another one. also who bowls alone? im sure they will link a real life alley with the wii system, that makes all the sense in the world, probably #1 on there priority list.
So happy to hear the Bowling Alley will remain open. It is more important to keep something that can provide entertainment for the whole family than to put up more high-rise buildings. This area (MV-LA-PA )needs to focus more on family activities.
Annie is 100% on the mark……this area does NOT need more hotels and townhomes; it needs family-friendly entertainment opportunites. Going bowling together allows for interaction much more than attending a movie. Let’s hope that even if the economy does turn around, that the developers will change their minds. oh yeah, Palo Alto Bowl is part of a nationwide ‘Kids Bowl Free’ program during the summer. Incredible! I hope they offer it again this summer!
Last summer PA Bowl participated in an awesome promotion that allowed for free bowling for kids. Every week they e-mailed coupons out for each of my children, the coupons entitled each of them to 2 free games and free shoe rentals. M-F, every week. We only went a few times but it was so nice to have a FREE activity for kids. I hope they do it again this summer.
Yea for Palo Alto Bowl. I remember it better as FIESTA LANES as it used to be called many years ago. If I remember correctly there was a George Garibaldi who worked the counter there. He was such a nice and helpful guy.
Many more happy years to Palo Alto Bowl. And hurray for the Thai Garden restaurant.
By the way, for us ‘oldtimers’ old enough to remember, one game of bowling per person used to be 25 cents!!!
Already working on that, slowly and steadily … we’re not done yet. And the first step should not be fundraising; that would be giving in to the rich special interests, ie Barry Swenson. The majority of us are not rich; many of PA Bowl’s patrons live on SSI, including myself. Fundraising is of course an option, but should never be a first step here.
http://www.move.to/savethepaloaltobowl
We live in a status quo which favors the rich and pits money up against common sense and what’s right; we can change things, but in order to do this, we must find a way to get along and stand together.
http://www.move.to/savethepaloaltobowl
It’s about institutional discrimination; we live in a society which favors the rich. I am disabled, and the disabled is the minority discriminated against the most
And adding on to my previous reply, we should not rush into things and immediately throw money every which way without creating awesome public awareness and protest and relating to the developers and council on a personal level … it’s what’s known as “heart learning.” I envision protests in Lytton Plaza, door-to-door stuff, special ed students flooding the council chambers, etc.
There must be “civic engagement.” We can not afford to do “business as usual.” It’s why we’re in the mess we are seeing today, and it’s unacceptable.
The Thai Garden is excellent; the food is so good. I’m not just saying that because we want the place to survive; it really is amazing. 🙂 Even further proof that the best restaurants are always the smaller, hole-in-the-wall places 9whih also adds so much character to a community) … they really need our support.
it’s so sad that the restaurant is almost always empty. Awesome food in a quaint, romantic, old-world setting … what more could one want?