The head of Alexander &Baldwin Inc. said Thursday he remains hopeful Pali Lanes bowling center can stay in business but conceded he has his eye on a different type of development for the Kailua property if a viable business plan or bowling alley operator doesn’t materialize in the coming months.
“We have nothing against the (current) operators,” said Chris Benjamin, A&B president and CEO. “We’re rooting for them. We’ve tried to help them. We’ve tried to introduce them to people to help with a business plan. But at some point there’s got to be a viable operation.”
A campaign to save the bowling alley, opened in 1961 on Hekili Street, emerged in 2017 after A&B announced it would be redeveloping the property. A&B put its plans on hold following a strong community reaction, but it has now informed the operators that its annual lease will be reduced to month-to-month starting Saturday.
The operators, Art Machado and Dan Sylva, and members of the Pali Lanes supporters group have complained that the uncertainty linked to the short-team lease has caused the center to cut back on hours, delay repairs and lose the business of bowling leagues that need long-term contracts.
In an interview Thursday, Benjamin said his company has gone out of its way to try to make the bowling business work and is still holding out hope it still can despite being rejected by local and national operators who were asked about their interest in taking over.
As for the current operators, Benjamin said that when A&B purchased the building in 2013, it honored the tenant’s existing month-to-month lease, and Pali Lanes continued to operate for several more years under that lease without a raise in rent.
Benjamin said A&B gave the struggling operators a substantial break in rent — amounting to $91,800 — and increased their lease to a year to help them stay in business.
Despite repeatedly urging the operators to come up with a viable business plan, one hasn’t materialized.
“If the current operator came up with a viable business plan and had a funding source, I would love that,” he said. “We had an internal meeting today, and we all agreed that’s our preferred approach.”
But the reality is that no business plan was submitted, he said, and at some point A&B is going to need the flexibility to go with a different operator if it can find one.
“The situation is that we don’t know if we can find an operator, and we continue to look. Eventually, we’re going to need to consider a range of options for the property. But Plan A is for bowling,” Benjamin said.
Bob Gratz, president of the Save Pali Lanes Steering Committee, said he understands A&B’s need for a business plan, and the operators have pledged to create one. Unfortunately, there were a couple of “false starts,” and the truth is that one hasn’t been completed yet.
However, a new partner with strong business acumen has joined Pali Lanes, Gratz said, and there is greater optimism now that a viable plan can be created.
Machado, one of the partners, said that while A&B has tried to be helpful, the rent reduction came only after the company was informed that the business likely was going to shut down. Machado said the bowling center was struggling at the time because it needed air conditioning badly. The money, he said, went for air-conditioning units so that the operation could continue.
Since that time, he said, the community rallied around the bowling center, and it appears a promising future for the alley is possible.
