Report: IStar buying 58 bowling centers
Waterfront redeveloper also plans to rehabilitate Asbury Lanes
Asbury Lanes is not the only bowling alley which has caught the eye of waterfront redeveloper IStar Financial.
The corporation is acquiring 58 bowling centers around the country from sports equipment manufacturer Brunswick Corporation, according to an Aug. 1 report in the Commercial Observer website. IStar did not return a call from the Commercial Observer seeking comment on the report, which cites unnamed sources. The website is operated by the New York Observer.
IStar will lease the facilities to Bowlmor AMF Corp., which last month agreed to buy the retail bowling operations of the Brunswick Corporation, according to the report. IStar is buying the bowling center portfolio for $200 million, the Commercial Observer stated.
In Asbury Park, iStar has stated its intention to “retain and rehabilitate” Asbury Lanes [above], a vintage early 1960s bowling alley and live music venue. That statement about Asbury Lanes was made as part of an application by iStar to build a 110-room boutique hotel at the site of the vacant Salvation Army Building on Fifth Avenue. Asbury Lanes is behind the hotel site on the same block, and iStar has indicated that the two structures could be connected by a breezeway.
Asbury Partners, in which iStar is majority owner, currently owns the land where Asbury Lanes is located.
The bowling centers to be acquired by iStar are located in and around Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and Dallas, according to Commercial Observer, citing a “person familiar with the transaction.”
One of the newer centers that iStar will purchase and lease — Brunswick Premier Lanes in Chula Vista, Calif. — does “cosmic bowling” after 9 p.m. using black lights, according to the Commercial Observer.
The portfolio acquisition is expected to be completed in the next three months, the report stated.
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