IBI November 2018 Cover Story

COVER STORY

KEEPING UP WITH THE

TIMES The KingPins centers in Portland are state-of-the-art with a nod to tradition.

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November 2018

By Jim Goodwin

T

he Times They Are A-Changin’ — the 1960s anthem by Bob Dylan was still popular and well on its way to becoming a classic in the 1970s when Jon Tang and Tom Burke went to work as teenagers at Sunset Lanes in Beaverton, OR. It was a first job for both of them, and who would have thought then that they would be partners in the ownership of two of Portland’s premier centers more than 40 years later? They have seen many great changes in the business through all those years.

That first job at Sunset Lanes led them to a career with Brunswick Recreation Centers, and both of them spent more than two decades learning the business at many BRC

COVER STORY centers up and down the West Coast and in Utah. They learned every aspect of running a bowling center, and they fell in love with the business and the industry.

In 1998, Tang and Burke were given the opportunity they worked so hard for: they purchased Sunset Lanes from BRC and made it their own. They steadily built the business, and, in 2015, they expanded their company by purchasing 20th Century Lanes across town. They completely remodeled and updated the center and re-branded it KingPins Family Entertainment Center. It was a big center – 50 lanes; it now has 32 traditional lanes plus an 8-lane lounge they named the TapHouse Bar & Grill.

By 2017, Sunset was beginning to show its age. It had been a great center since 1963. When a Portland developer announced a 15-acre, 300,000-square-foot retail project adjacent to Sunset, Tang and Burke made a deal to make the bowling center a part of it with an all new 45,000-square-foot building; Sunset would become the second KingPins center with 24 traditional lanes and a 10-lane TapHouse Bar & Grill.

“It was a perfect and natural deal for all of us,” said Tang, “Because it gave us the second location we wanted, and we now have two great KingPins centers, one on the west side of Portland, and the new one in Beaverton on the east side.” No doubt it was attractive to the developer because the center will draw traffic to the retail shops.

Embracing the Past, but Focused on the Future Tang and Burke were trained by BRC in the traditional bowling world, and they have witnessed firsthand the

decline of league bowling and the evolution of the business model that now must focus on new revenue streams to be successful. Both of their KingPins centers have more than 1,000 league bowlers, but they also do a tremendous amount of business in other areas.

“We are anchored in tradition, but we also know that we must change to do well in today’s environment,” said Tang. “We now train our staff to develop special relationships with guests that come in twice a week, and also with those who come in twice a year.”

The new KingPins Beaverton opened its doors only 10 days after the closing of the old Sunset Lanes. The new state-of-the-art center is 45,000 square feet with 24 traditional lanes and a 10-lane TapHouse Bar & Grill lounge; a big upgrade from the 32,000square-foot building. The move was easy since the new building sits only about 100 yards from the old one.

“We are very loyal to our long time customers – league and casual both,” said Tang. “Some of them have been with us since the ‘60s John Tang (left) and Tom Burke, proprietors of KingPins.

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COVER STORY and now we can offer them this beautiful new center that has everything they were familiar and comfortable with, and much more.”

‘Just Do It’ That famous slogan has special meaning at the new KingPin center in Beaverton because the Nike World Headquarters building is only one mile away. 12,000 people work at Nike, and many of them are KingPins customers.

but getting a brand new one with all of the new features.

Out of this World

Some bowling industry veterans may recall that many years ago, Nike ventured into the bowling shoe business, and star bowler Marshall Holman, who lives in nearby Medford, was on their pro staff.

“Believe it or not, we still see some of our customers wearing those Nike bowling shoes,” said Tang.

KingPins Beaverton has the same employees, same friendly service, same location, same leagues, same ownership, same youth programs, but now has the excitement of everything being new and state-of-the-art. It is like loving an old car

FRONTIER LANES STILLWATER, OK (16 LANES) We Congratulate Wanda and Ernie Simmons on their purchase of this fine center and thank the Cummins family for trusting Ken Mischel to handle the sale. We wish Wanda, Ernie and the Cummins family all the best.

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One of the biggest new attractions at KingPins Beaverton is the Avatar Earth Quest laser tag arena. Designed and installed by Creative Works, the arena was designed to appeal to both youth and adult players. It is 3,800 square feet on two levels and can accommodate up to 28 players. The themed music and landscape are captivating to everyone.

“Our company designed, fabricated, and installed the laser tag arena for KingPins,” said Danny Gruening, VP of marketing for Creative Works. “We installed our Avatar-inspired laser tag experience. The props, barriers, and mural walls depict a land similar to the moon Pandora from the movie. The laser tag equipment and interactive targets were supplied by Zone Laser Tag.” Creative Works VP of sales, Russ Van Natta, worked directly with KingPins owners and general manager Phil Jackson to get the job done on budget and on schedule. Consultants Don MacBrayne and Rick Heim were also an important part of the overall project.

The 4,000-square-foot KingPins arcade features more than 50 of the latest video games, and one of the newest on the market is the virtual reality experience by Hologate that was also continued on page 38...

COVER STORY ...continued from page 34

supplied by Creative Works.

“Hologate is a stand-alone, virtual reality attraction,” said Gruening. “This four player mini-attraction has an open-air layout, which allows spectators to watch the players and see the action on monitors above the playing space. When players put on the VR headset, they are transported to a virtual world where they can play one of several games available.”

What made Hologate attractive to KingPins was the stand-alone feature and the ability to re-program new

calling them FECs or BECs or hybrids, or by any other name than simply bowling centers, and KingPins is a perfect example of what he is talking about. Jon Tang and Tom Burke have proven with their two beautiful KingPins centers that you can have it all – tradition, and all the new bells and whistles in today’s state-of-the-art bowling center.

As Nike says,“Just do it.” ❖

games into it over time.

“Hologate takes a space of 17’x17’, so it really stands out in the arcade,” said Tang, “And we have noticed that we have customers who come in just for that attraction. It is doing well, and we like the idea that we can keep it fresh by easily changing the games with simple re-programming when the old ones decline. I think we are scheduled to get two new games every year.

We really enjoyed working with Creative Works because we had a very tight schedule moving from the old building to the new one, and they were very accommodating and did a great job.”

Eat, Roll, Play The KingPins slogan says it all – upscale TapHouse Bar & Grill featuring a signature Splits burger and more delicious food and beverages, plenty of lanes for leagues, tournaments, and parties, and all the latest games and attractions in an exciting arcade.

BPAA executive director Frank DeSocio told us recently that he believes that bowling centers have evolved to a point where we can stop 38

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Jim Goodwin is the founder and president of the Bowling News Network and a former president and life member of the International Bowling Media Association.