Fairlanes Bowling alley at Halifax Shopping Centre closing
Posted May 7, 2013 07:51:26 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Fairlanes Bowling in the Halifax Shopping Centre is closing it’s doors after the mall decided not to renew it’s lease.
The bowling alley has been in Halifax Shopping Centre since it opened in 1963.
Fairlanes manager Doug Blackler said they’ll have to be out of the downstairs space by the end of June.
“We’ve seen something like this coming, we were kind of hoping they might downsize us a bit and leave us here since we are very important to seniors and kids and families and a whole bunch of other people and twenty staff members, but it is what it is when you’re in a mall I guess,” he said.
He said the mall will lose a lot of traffic when the alley shuts down.
Fairlanes won’t be moving to another location. Blacker explained it’s too expensive and hard to rebuild a bowling centre.
“I have a very loyal bunch of people that come here all the time that are very, very sad,” he explained. “I have a lot of seniors here who rely on this place on a weekly basis.”
Closing the venue means 20 staff will lose their jobs, and a slew of charities will not be able to host annual bowling fundraisers like Bowling for Kids’ Sake and Bide Awhile.
Blackler said the bowling alley wanted to renew the lease, but the mall has the final say.
He said the business has been steady and making profit for years and he added he has no idea what the mall has in store for the large, downstairs venue.
