Bowling

Bowling continues to be one of the most popular indoor forms of recreation. Being truly intergenerational, it has high appeal to families and makes an ideal anchor for destination entertainment and eatertainment centers.

Bowling has been ongoing a major market shift. At one time, leagues made up 70 percent and more of bowling centers' business. Changing lifestyles have seriously eroded league business. Today, leagues make up the minority of business of most bowling centers. To offset the lose of league business, many bowling centers are remodeling and expanding as family (FEC) or adult entertainment centers to increase their appeal as leisure destinations to attract the open play customer. Other centers are targeting the young adult market with upscale bowling lounges.  Most bowling-entertainment centers and all bowling lounges no longer offer league bowling.

The White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Groups has a proven track record dating back to 1989 of consulting, feasibility, concept development and the full architectural and interior design of bowling centers and their renovation and expansion as family entertainment centers. Bowling centers we have designed won the Bowler's Journal award for the best new bowling center interior in both 1990 and 1995. We have won the NewsMaker Award in three separate years for the design of the best new family entertainment centers, one of which incorporated a bowling area.

Our bowling projects include:

Manama, Bahrain

Developed feasibility study and designed concept plans for a children’s and woman’s center that included a separate floor of 12 duckpin bowling lanes.

Knuckleheads, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

White Hutchinson assisted the Waterman family with concept and mix development and plans for their $20-million, 115,000-square-foot Knuckleheads Bowling & Family Entertainment Center and Buffalo Phil’s Grille that opened in 2007 in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

The 80,000-square-foot indoor family entertainment portion of Knuckleheads includes 24 ten-pin bowling lanes with 12 large projection screens and 40 LCD monitors. The projection screens and monitors can be used for viewing jukebox music videos, sporting events and other shows. Adjoining the bowling is a multi-level electric go-kart track, a family rollercoaster, family Himalayan ride, other family rides, bumper cars, a 10-seat, 3-D projection ride theater, 125 redemption and arcade games and the Pumphouse Pizza café.

Western Texas, U.S.A. – Cinema-restaurant-entertainment-bowling complex

Developing design plans for a 65,000-square-foot entertainment complex that includes six movie theaters, bowling, a destination restaurant, family entertainment attractions and games, and party and meeting rooms.

White Hutchinson Designs US Navy's 1st Family Entertainment Center as renovation and expansion of existing bowling center.

The White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group recently completed design of the US Navy's 1st family entertainment center (FEC) to be located at the Naval Air Station (NAS) in Brunswick, Maine. Randy White, CEO of White Hutchinson, said the US military is undertaking an extensive upgrading of all their moral, welfare and recreation (MWR) facilities worldwide. The purpose of the NAS Brunswick project is to help retain military families on the base by offering them leisure amenities specifically tailored to their needs. The center is currently under construction for an opening in the late summer of 2000.

The FEC is being developed as an addition and renovation of the existing bowling center. The facility will have over 20,000 square feet of interior space and include:

• a food court with a gourmet coffee café, a pizza shop and an A&W Restaurant with a drive-thru,
• a children's edutainment area with soft-contained-play, construction play, do-it-yourself face painting, an art studio, pretend dress-up and a pretend play house,
• a games area with redemption games and a redemption prize counter,
• a multi-purpose area that can accommodate two private birthday parties, movies, meetings and other activities, and
• the base's central information, ticket and tours (ITT) office.

In a landscaped plaza area at the entrance to the FEC, there will be a patio dining area, a children's water playground, and two dry playground areas-one for children 2 to 5 years old and one for older children.

Click here to see photos.

Olathe Lanes East, Kansas City, MO

In January 1989, one of our client's bowling allies in Olathe, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City burned to the ground and we were retained to manage its redevelopment. Seeing that there might be possibilities to improve the business, we sent a four-page questionnaire to its league bowlers. 70% returned the questionnaires with no incentive, a clear indication we had loyal customers. The bowlers profile was completely different than the owner thought - 85 percent where upper-middle class white-collar workers, 51 percent were women. So we completely redesigned the bowling center, targeting this upscale niche. WHLLG's work included full design and theming, food & beverage concept development and implementation for "Charlie's Diner", project management and management culture re-engineering.

The former 24 lane bowling center was rebuilt in nine months using fast track design and construction techniques from fire to reopening as a contemporary 32 lane bowling center. The design of the center was market research and guest driven and broke most paradigms of bowling center design at the time including:

• Elimination of settee seating and the use of comfortable cocktail style table seating to maximize bowler socialization, comfort and food and beverage sales,
• Completely level floors with no step to the approach area (this was pre-ADA design),
• Bright light levels throughout,
• Windows on the concourse,
• Upscale nursery,
• Upscale food service - Charlie's Diner,
• Full thematic design using an art deco theme,
• Hourly per lane charges rather than per game charges, and
• The concept of guest service rather than customer services.

When the bowling center reopened, its business immediately doubled although nothing else in the marketplace had changed. The center commanded premium rates, it's per game food and beverage sales quadrupled and it won awards for:

• Best new bowling center
• Best billiards area
• Best commercial restrooms
• Best lounge/eatery

The center has established new design paradigms in the bowling center industry and to this day is still considered a benchmark model. In the late 1990's Brunswick Bowling introduced a new line of bowling seating that imitates the concourse seating first introduced at Olathe Lanes East.

Wol-Ha, Cancun, Mexico

This 35,000 square foot family entertainment center includes a 20-lane bowling center, a children's pay-for-play center, a McDonald's restaurant and a separate café. WHLLG handled the full feasibility and interior design of the center. Wol-Ha won the Bowler's Journal 1995 award for the best new bowling center interior and the 1994 NewsMaker award for the best new international family entertainment center.

Hermitage Lanes, Nashville, Tennessee

WHLLG conducted feasibility studies and developed theme designs for the renovation and expansion of the center as a family entertainment center that includes the bowling center with a new snack bar, a new grill/lounge and adult entertainment area, and a family entertainment area that includes a separate children's edutainment area.

Sun Mountain Sports, Bend, Oregon

In 1996 WHLLG conducted feasibility studies and developed designs to expand the existing bowling center as a family entertainment center that included both outdoor and indoor attractions and a gameroom. The customer base for the center was about 50 percent residents and 50 percent skiers and campers who visit the area. The center successfully expanded to become a true family destination and the bowling became 100% open play. Then in 2006, the owners again hired WHLLG to evaluate the center and develop plans to renovate the center, including a grill café, and expand the indoor area with additional attractions. Renovations are currently underway.

XPlosions, Caguas, Puerto Rico

WHLLG has completed feasibility studies and developed concept plans for this new 280,000 sq. feet indoor family entertainment center which will feature bowling as one of its anchor attractions.

Greater Washington, DC area

Retained by client for market and financial feasibility and to develop preliminary plans for development of a 70,000 sq. feet indoor, 1.2-acre outdoor family entertainment center featuring bowling as one of its anchor attractions.

Other bowling clients have included:

• Royal Scott Golf & Bowl, Lansing, MI
• MBX Bowling Systems, Albuquerque, NM
• Aquidneck Lanes, Middletown, RI
• Camelot Lanes, Portage, IN
• Shirley Bowl, Bay Shore, LI, NY
• Los Medanos Bowl, Pittsburg, CA
• Caribor S.A. de C.V., Mexico
• Brunswick Bowling

We can help you design a new center or renovated your existing center for success into the third millennium.