Randolph, VT
By Robin Palmer Times Argus Staff
If a pending sale of Randolph's Rose Bowl goes through as expected, the Route 12 bowling alley will be replaced with a retail store.
A local resident, Wayne Warner, is hoping the deal falls through and he will be able to keep the long-standing bowling alley open, however. If not, Warner says he plans to buy the bowling equipment and lanes and open a bowling center elsewhere in town, possibly on Beanville Road where he lives.
Tony Voyer has been trying to sell Randolph's Rose Bowl for seven years, since he moved out of state to Little River, S.C. Formerly of Morrisville, Voyer had owned a second bowling alley in Morrisville, the former Morrisville Bowl. That bowling alley sold two years ago and is now an Agway.
While Voyer would like to keep the Rose Bowl a bowling alley, he said he's been unsuccessful selling it as such and has accepted an offer from Alex Nichols of Albany, N.Y., to buy the bowling alley and turn it into unspecified retail space.
"I've had it for sale since 1998. Basically nobody came forward until they found out I was selling to somebody who was not going to use it for a bowling alley," Voyer said in a phone interview from South Carolina, where he now builds "spec" homes.
Nichols, who has a purchase and sales agreement with Voyer and is expected to close on the property by April 1, is a commercial real estate sales person who built and owns the Northeast Storage sheds, also on Route 12.
Nichols says he sold wood flooring until about two months ago and traveled to Vermont for his work. He has a love of the state, he said, and called Voyer a couple months ago to ask about buying the bowling alley.
"I made a call to him out of the blue. He was very, very anxious to sell it," Nichols said.
Nichols will not specify what type of retail operation he will put in the bowling alley once lanes are ripped out.
Rumors have been flying locally about the possibility of a Home Depot, a lumber liquidator, a grocery store or a discount department store, such as a Big Lots!
Nichols said that the store will not be a "typical big box" store, nor will it directly compete with nearby Central Supplies or Aubuchon Hardware.
"Everything's in the works," Nichols said. "It's a retail outlet. I can't really disclose the name of it."
He continued, "I think the town will welcome it. It's a small town retail outlet. (It is) pretty much general retail."
Nichols said he is not personally interested in bowling and never considered keeping it an bowling alley.
A commercial property, there is nothing in local zoning regulations that would prevent Nichols from changing the use to retail, including to a big box store, Zoning Administrator Mardee Sanchez said.
Word that the bowling alley will likely close has Warner worried.
If the deal falls through with Nichols, Voyer has agreed to sell the bowling alley to Warner, a local bowling enthusiast and bookkeeper at nearby Smitty's Flooring. "If Wayne would have come forward before, he would have owned it," Voyer said.
A bowler since his early teens, 39-year-old Warner bowls in a Tuesday night men's league at the Rose Bowl, both of his children bowl and Warner heads the Vermont State Youth Bowling Association.
"It would be a definite loss to the community. It's a sport that (some) local youth only do in the winter. That's all they do," said Warner.
The Rose Bowl has been a bowling alley for more than 40 years, since 1963. Voyer has owned the bowling alley since 1994.
Warner said he didn't step forward earlier to buy the bowling alley because he thought bowling alley employee, Keith Voyer, Tony Voyer's Randolph brother, was hoping to buy the business and keep it as an bowling alley. Nichols said he initially backed off inquiring about the bowling alley because he was told it would have to remain an bowling alley if sold.
Now, said Warner, he's hoping the deal with Voyer falls through and Warner and wife, Karen, can buy it and run it as a bowling alley.
"It's hard to run a family-type business from South Carolina. We're looking to be family-type business with our children helping us," said Warner of daughter, Krista, 12, and son, Joshua, 10. "We're looking to go in and hopefully revive the bowling alley to what it used to be."
Although Warner would continue working part-time at Smitty's, a Route 12 flooring store.
Warner would "retool" equipment at the bowling alley, expand the arcade game area and add a small kitchen to provide more food items, such as sandwiches. Nachos, hotdogs and popcorn are now sold. He'd also add cigarette "smoke-eating" equipment, he said.
Warner has a second option to buy the bowling alley and bank approval for a loan for the purchase. He also has a first option on the bowling alley's 10 lanes and equipment, he said.
If the deal with Nichols goes through, Warner would pay $70,000 just to move the bowling equipment to a new location, he said. "It's expensive to set up a new bowling alley. We're working on it," he said.
One possibility would be to build a new bowling center at the Waterbury Cos. property on Beanville Road, which Warner's employer, Ken Smith, has bought. Warner said he and Smith have also discussed putting the bowling alley inside part of the large vacant manufacturing space.
Tony Voyer would not say how much he will receive for the building from Nichols, and Nichols too declined to comment on the purchase price. Voyer said he last had the business advertised for sale at $350,000. He would sell the business to Warner for less than that, Voyer said.
The building and 1.5 acres of land is appraised at $245,500 by the town, Town Assessor Pat French said. The town is soon beginning a reappraisal, however. Voyer bought the property from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) in 1994 for $170,000 following a repossession.
Contact Robin Palmer at robin.palmer@timesargus.com or 479-0191, ext. 1171.
originally published, in context, here; http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050203/NEWS/502030306/1006 |
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