Northeast Bowling Alley Closes Down

Northeast El Paso has lost yet another one of its entertainment options.

Bowlero Lanes, located in the 8900 block of Dyer Street and built in the 1950’s, has closed its doors. And now that the bowling alley’s doors have been locked, many in Northeast El Paso are so upset about it they’re shedding tears.

“Nationwide, bowling has gone down about 40 percent,” Bowlero General Manager David Zapata said. “We’re just one of the victims of that.”

Zapata said the dallas-based owner’s decision to close Bowlero Lanes was financial.

“Let me give you a small example,” Zapata said. “Our electric bill is $6,000 a month … $6,000 a month when we’re running it for a dollar a game.”

Coupled with declining league numbers, he said it just wasn’t profitable anymore.

“Leagues are what pay the bills of bowling alleys,” he said, “and leagues are just not clicking anymore.”

Bowlero opened in 1957. But many Northeast El Pasoans have memories that date back much further than that.

“All of my three children bowled here,” said 67-year-old Linda Gchwind Schuetz, whose family has been bowling at Bowlero since the early 1970’s. “My oldest son bowled his first 300 perfect game here. My daughter, when she was 8, she bowled her first 100 here. It’s the only thing we have in Northeast and they’re taking it away from us.”

Cindy Pepin ran the now closed Crafty Hands craft shop in the same building. She said she’d been bowling at Bowlero since the 60’s.

“There’s a lot of people here that are closer to me than family,” Pepin said. “So yeah, it’s heartbreaking. It just started running downhill over the last year or so.”

Stanley Gilchrest is one 16 Bowlero employees to lose his job. He bowled his last game there on Friday night.

“It was a great place to be,” Gilchrest said. “I really enjoyed it. I would have stayed until the building fell down around me. A lot of us would have.”