by Keltic Canada Development

LaurenVanderdeen

lvanderdeen@burnabynow com

The last bowling alley in Burnaby is about to fall.

The land where Revs Entertainment bowling alley has sat for more than 60 years has sold to a developer.

Keltic Canada Development purchased the 4.28acre property at 5502 Lougheed Hwy , right next to Holdom SkyTrain station in Brentwood

RobTaylor, vice-president of Revs Entertainment, said the company is sad to sell but couldn’t survive high property taxes.

“The property taxes have been astronomical for many years,”Taylor said “We’ve been taxed based on ‘highest and best use,’ which is not a bowling centre, it’s residential and commercial ”

“So unfortunately, the property tax has been killing us for many years, and kind of the final straw that broke the camel’s back was COVID-19 and centre closures.

“We couldn’t survive anymore in that location, so we had no choice but to sell.”

JulianWard, Keltic’s vice-president of development, said the developer was interested in the property due to its location.

“We thought it was a great location in between the Brentwood centre and the Holdom SkyTrain station, so it’s the pocket in between that the city is

looking to densify,”Ward said

While the architectural designs are still in the very preliminary stages,Ward said the plan is to build highrise towers

“What we envisage probably is, not confirmed yet, obviously, two, maybe three highrise towers in between 35 levels and 55 levels, storeys, with associated podiums,” he said, adding the company is looking to include commercial retail.

What about the bowling alley?

“The bowling alley’s not going to go straight away,”

Ward said

Revs, which has the bowling alley, a bar and restaurant, will be able to operate during the development cycle of processing and permitting, which Ward estimated would be at least a year “and a bit,” before demolition.

Taylor said bowling alleys are in decline.

“Bowling centres in general are disintegrating, simply due to property taxes in general,”Taylor said, adding many bowling centres, which sit on large plots of scarce land, are being bought and redeveloped