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Balls will be rolling down the lanes for just one more month at Danville Bowl after more than six decades, with the property near downtown recently changing hands and the new owners ready to redevelop the parcel as soon as possible, the bowling alley’s management confirmed this week.
The day after announcing the impending March 31 closure on Danville Bowl’s Facebook page, vice president of operations Justin Oertel told DanvilleSanRamon that the family business has created a lifetime of “priceless” memories, but the reality of constraints in recent years were too costly to overcome despite having ideas on the table to reinvigorate the alley.
“We had plans to renovate and try to bring the bowl into the future, but countless obstacles and lack of funding after Covid kind of brought it to this point. We wished it would’ve stayed a bowl but sadly things didn’t line up,” Oertel said in an email interview Thursday morning.
“I’m going to miss the relationships built,” added Oertel, whose father Mike has owned the bowling alley for more than 30 years.
“I’ve seen people that bowled in leagues, they would be dating … then they’d get married and have kids,” Oertel said. “Bringing in the kids and just continuing the fun that’s had in a bowling center. Relationships that started as friends as a couple and now I’m seeing them bring their kids in, stuff like that is priceless joy. Memories I’ll always remember.”
The Danville Bowl property at 200 Boone Court, sitting almost directly below Interstate 680 and a block off San Ramon Valley Boulevard, had been owned by a trust from whom the Oertels leased the building, but the parcel was recently bought by new ownership, according to Oertel.
“The property has been sold to developers who intend to start right away. Our last day open will be Monday, March 31st,” Danville Bowl management said in its Facebook post Wednesday.
The apparent new plans for the property remain unclear. Attempts to contact ownership have been unsuccessful.
The Danville town government has “not received any applications for the site”, communications and economic development manager Jenn Starnes said on Thursday. The property is listed as a housing opportunity site in Danville’s current Housing Element.
Regardless of the future of the land itself, the community is saying goodbye to a recreational institution that has been open since 1961. Owned at one time by legendary pro bowler and entrepreneur Earl Anthony, Oertel said his father Mike bought the bowling alley in 1994 and it’s been an integral part of his life since.
“I was born in ’93. I grew up in that center. Every birthday party until I was 13 was held there,” Oertel said. “We had a junior program that had 40-plus kids that would bowl on Saturdays. After we finished league, 15-20 of us would go out in the parking lot after and play baseball, football, etc.”
The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit many indoor recreation businesses like Danville Bowl particularly hard, contributed to the uncertain future for the only bowling alley in the San Ramon Valley.
“We had a lease up until Covid and that really changed how everything played out in this situation between my family, the trust and the bowl moving forward,” Oertel said.
When Danville Bowl closes at the end of March, it will leave Earl Anthony’s Dublin Bowl and Granada Bowl in Livermore as the only alleys left in the Tri-Valley. Pinstripes Walnut Creek also opened last fall not too far away in that city’s Broadway Plaza.
“Bowling is a great game, and even though we may be leaving there are still many great bowling centers in the area to bowl at,” Danville Bowl management said in their goodbye post on Facebook. “We hope that you continue to bowl and let bowling provide joy and happiness into your lives long after we’re gone.”
“We hope we’ve provided fun times, smiles, and laughter to everyone who came in. Whether it was throwing some games, enjoying a drink in the lounge, or grabbing a bite in the grill, our goal was to provide memories that would last a lifetime,” they added. “Thank you for the wonderful memories and fun times we all shared. We couldn’t have dreamed of being (part) of a greater community.”
