The Palace Bowling Lanes building on Bellaire Blvd. (which picked up the new moniker Bowl on Bellaire about a year ago) appears to have been closed since Friday, says a reader who “showed up [Saturday] morning for the youth bowling league to find that the locks have been changed and they are not open for business.” Katherine Feser confirms this afternoon that the property is still closed, though a note on the door says the tenant can have new keys if and when all the delinquent rent is paid.
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The 1960s building sits at the south end of its 2.8-acre lot hemmed in to the west by Uzi’s Auto Shop and Moeller’s Bakery; on the other side of the property is the former home of the Blair House apartments, cleared out last fall and now being built up as another piece of Trammell Crow’s Alexan apartment chain (though the development is these days going by Alexan Southside Place rather than stick-an-E-on-it Alexan Blaire House as originally announced).
- Previously on Swamplot: New Alexan Blaire House Will Eat Blair House Apartments on Bellaire Blvd.; Apartments, or Maybe More, To Replace the Black-eyed Pea on Bellaire Blvd.
Photo: Palace Lanes
Wondered when this was going to happen …..
This would be a great opportunity for the Chronicle to do some digging and find out whole story, but alas the effort seems to have been expended after “Calls to the property manager and the bowling alley were not answered Monday” and looking up the business entity name. Which really means they only called the property manager, since it would be difficult for someone at the bowling alley to pick up the phone on account of, you know, getting locked out.
Wish it was that easy for me when people didn’t pay their rent…
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Ironically, the stricter the rules are to evict people (to “protect” tenants), the stricter we have to be on rent qualification and deposit size. Which makes it harder for many tenants to rent.
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It would be easier to take a risk on a marginal tenant (low credit score, less than a full month deposit), if the property code didn’t allow them to bunker down in the apartment for 2 months if they don’t pay rent.
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A good example of a well meaning law backfiring.
Good! That area is desperately in need of more class A apartments and high-end town homes;-)
This is a terrible loss for the community. How many of your children and grandchildren held birthday parties at the Palace? Where are other wholesome, safe places for your kids to go for a really fun outing?
Believe it or not, bowling is still enjoyed by a lot of adults, especially seniors who have leagues in the mornings and afternoons. Try to find an open lane on a week night, because all the lanes are taken up by leagues for adults of all ages.
Palace/Bowl on Bellaire held one of the largest fund-raising tournaments in the city, the Lucy Bonneau Striking Against Breast Cancer Tourney for a number of years.
Too bad that the lessees could not live up to their obligations when they took it over, even though they were really trying to make much-needed improvements.
And, no, we do not need any more apartments over there.
Hold on Moeller’s and Uzi’s!!!
I have no inside knowledge on this situation but I’m saddened to find out that Palace Lanes was struggling to make the rent.
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Where is Jimmy McMillan and “The Rent Is Too Damn High” party? (kidding)
This is really sad. I, like many of you, grew up attending birthday parties and the like here. I’ve been told a big time dallas developer owns the site and will be making room for some CLASS A+ apts. Tax rolls still have Tropicana, Inc. as the owner…but those clown at HCAD are often wrong. One of my best memories here was in 1998 – John Bukake Daylee and Leonard Sawyer had a most amazing party there.
Really sad to see a place like this go. Not many places like this left in Houston. Stay Safe.
BC
With all of these hipsters being Big Lebowski fans, you’d think a bowling alley could stay solvent.
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This will not stand, man.
@memebag:
…i mean..it really ties the neighborhood together..