FREMONT — Local bowlers and residents are raising the alarm over the potential loss of a Fremont entertainment institution, Cloverleaf Family Bowl, as the property owner is considering selling to a developer who would likely demolish the business to build housing.
The alley’s co-owners, Jim Chambers and Mike Hillman, say they still have five years left on their lease before they could be booted, but a proposal submitted to the city last month from Newport Beach developer William Lyon Homes has stirred up outrage and disappointment from those who bowl at the alley both regularly and casually.
Since the closure of Mowry Lanes in Fremont several years ago, Cloverleaf is the last bowling center in Fremont, Newark, Union City and Hayward, the owners said.
“It would be a terrible loss,” Bel Damian Jr., 58, of Fremont said this week about the potential demolishing of the popular business, echoing the sentiment of many other customers there. He bowls there several days a week during the afternoons when the place fills up with league teams. On weekends, the lanes are generally packed with bowlers of all expertise levels.
“This is the last of the bowling centers,” Damian Jr. said while warming up for a league match at Cloverleaf, wearing rings on his bowling hand’s fingers, denoting times he rolled a perfect 300 in a tournament.
“As large as this community is, the city of Fremont, you need to have some sort of recreation. All these homes, it’s so ridiculous,” he said.
The alley was built in 1959, and Hillman’s family has operated it since 1963, along with investment from Chambers. It was expanded in 1963 and 1974, increasing from the original 20 lanes to 44.
Hillman said in an interview Wednesday the business has given back to the community extensively through scholarships for kids, hosting tournaments for charities and by offering deeply discounted bowling passes to elementary schoolchildren every summer for decades.
“We are history to the city; everything about us is tradition,” Hillman said, noting that community support has sustained the business for more than half a century.
He said though the development proposal is only preliminary, he feels he needs to do his best to “nip it in the bud” now.
The conceptual proposal calls for demolishing all buildings on the eight-acre shopping center site, located at the corner of Fremont Boulevard and Grimmer Boulevard, and building 132 condos, 140 apartments and about 8,000 square feet of commercial space, a city official said.
“Given that the building that the bowling alley occupies could be a potential historic resource, it will require evaluation to determine its historic significance,” Fremont associate planner Aki Honda Snelling said in an emailed statement.
“Once they start knocking things down and doing their thing, it’s too late to save us,” Hillman said, noting he feels betrayed city officials would even consider letting the plans go through.
“Thank you very much for 55 plus years in business … but you know what, you gotta go. It’s so frustrating,” he said.
Lori Klein, of Fremont, was bowling with her 8-year-old granddaughter, Kennedi, Wednesday afternoon. Klein said she comes to the alley a few times each year, and she doesn’t want to see it close to make way for housing.
“My feeling is we have enough in Fremont,” she said. “The traffic is gridlocked here already. To go to the grocery store, you have to fight to get a cart,” she said.
“What are the few family activities you can do that’s fun for all ages? This is like an All-American activity, that you can afford,” she added.
Many others seem to support the alley, as an online petition started by a customer of Cloverleaf to oppose the development has already gained more than 13,000 signers.
Chambers said he has asked the property owner multiple times for a lease extension, but has not received one, and he is not surprised.
“Well, it’s Fremont,” Chambers said. “They want to build homes, that’s all Fremont does anymore. They don’t care about recreation.”
SG Ellison, head of ACV FSD Fremont, a limited partnership that owns the property, said it’s “much ado about nothing” for the alley currently, noting that Chambers has five years left on the lease before anything could be torn down.
“We are more than happy to allow him to enjoy those five years,” Ellison said.
Though Ellison’s group has only “explored” the idea of refurbishing the commercial center he described as “outdated,” he blamed Cloverleaf’s popularity for vacancies in several storefronts, saying bowlers take up too much of the center’s parking.
Chambers said he has been offered more than $5 million from investors four different times to sell off the lease early to make way for a development.
“And I have turned them down every time,” he said. He said if he was to retire and sell the business, he would only sell to Hillman, so it could continue to operate as it does today.
“It’s not about money with me. I want that to be a bowling center,” he said. “The community needs it.”
To provide input about the proposed development, email Fremont senior planner Joel Pullen at jpullen@fremont.gov, or associate planner Aki Honda Snelling at asnelling@fremont.gov.