Kingpins Bowling Featured on North Shore News

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In 2021 North Vancouver residents will no longer have to cross a bridge to find some evening entertainment and a place to hang out with friends.

Coming to North Van in January is the King Pins Bowling Alley, the result of a contentious split vote from the City of North Vancouver council three years ago, the loss of a longstanding bowling institution this year and two years of work by a North Vancouver-based architecture and interior design company. Also called Kingpins Socialhouse, the project is located in the bottom level of Onni’s CentreView condos in Central Lonsdale.

The ball got rolling in 2017 when Onni Group was excavating their 24- and 18-storey towers on the old Safeway site on 13th Street and Lonsdale Avenue when they realized there was enough space for storage, parking and a 7,884-square-foot bowling alley.

When brought to council for approval, a potential neighbour to the bowling alley strenuously objected to the process also saying he didn’t want to live overtop of a bowling alley. Although city staff assured council all legal requirements have been met, a rift formed between councillors. In the end, council supported the bowling alley 4-3.

The King Pins Bowling Alley lanes will have a restaurant with a sitting area next to the 10-pin standard lanes. Besides bowling, the space offers 8-Ball stations with professional pool tables, balls, cues and equipment. According to King Pin Bowling’s website, they are one of the few spots in Metro Vancouver that has a 12-ft snooker table.

Nadi Miri, the project’s main architect who has been working on the alley’s design with her sister Ellie said the space will be a valuable asset to the growing youthful population of North Vancouver.

“With all the new developments and construction and all the young families that are moving here they need more of those entertainment areas,” Nadi said. “North Van is definitely lacking those gathering places.”

This sentiment was also shared by city councillors during that divisive council decision in 2017 where Coun. Linda Buchanan said that with recreation in short supply, the bowling alley will serve a demographic “who actually want to do other things within our city besides sit in restaurants or a bar and drink.”

Source: nsnews.com

Kingpins Bowling Featured on Vancouver Urbanized

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A new chic modern bowling alley destination will open in Central Lonsdale in North Vancouver next year.

King Pins Bowling shared on its social media that it will be opening at the beginning of January 2021 at 1312 Lonsdale Avenue.

The attraction is wedged into a 7,900-sq-ft underground space within Onni Group’s 2017-completed CentreView mixed-use complex entailing 17-storey and 24-storey condominium towers on top of an office and retail podium, which includes a 40,000-sq-ft Whole Foods, Fitness World, and various other retail and restaurants.

Proponents of the bowling alley narrowly received approval from city council in a heated public hearing in July 2017 that saw opposition from the complex’s future residents, who suggested they would not have bought a condominium unit if they had known there were plans for a bowling alley. Public consultation was conducted on the application, even though the business was not required to do so.

There will be six regulation-size, 10-pin lanes, along with other activities such as pool tables. It will also be one of the very few spots in Metro Vancouver with a 12-ft snooker table.

To the side of the bowling alley, a restaurant with a sitting area allows patrons to order food while enjoying their games. The restaurant is licensed for liquor service.

This is designed as a family-friendly attraction for all ages.

King Pins Bowling will fill in the void left by the forthcoming closure of the nearby longtime bowling alley at 141 West 3rd Street. Further south along the Lonsdale Avenue corridor, there are plans to close the existing North Shore Bowl five-lane bowling for Anthem Properties’ new five-storey, mixed-use redevelopment with 57 condominiums and new retail.

Closer to the waterfront, Cineplex shuttered its Esplanade location at 200 West Esplanade last year, and earlier this fall Cressey Development revealed its proposal to redevelop the former theatre into a nine-storey building with 75 rental homes and new retail.

Cineplex Odeon Park and Tilford also closed shortly after, leaving the new Cineplex at Park Royal shopping centre as the only North Shore location for the national theatre chain.

Across the inlet, new Cineplex Rec Room entertainment and dining complexes will open at The Amazing Brentwood shopping mall in early 2021, and on the Granville Entertainment District in downtown Vancouver in late 2021.

Source: dailyhive.com