They are being purchased by the owners of Sunset Lanes in Beaverton, OR. The tentative date of ownership will be 9/1.

"renovations" is quite frequently the party line for 'we are gone but we don't want to let you know since we still have plundering to do here.'

The gutting of the building would tend to suggest that is the case...would be nice to be wrong, but seriously...taking the toilets?  Seems a crappy thing to do...

AMF gutting the building was nothing more than them being bitter about loosing the lease and making things difficult for their competition.

From what I was told, a lot of the stuff was simply thrown in the trash.

I am looking forward to the new place - the whole place was in dire need of renovations.  It is was AMF Bowl-mor should have done.  Instead they put up a stupid wall in front of the snack bar and made it look like a prison commissary and they painted everything red.  They should have put real money into the place - it's probably why they lost the lease (but I have no actual knowledge of what really happened)

From everything I see, the management at Sunset run at first rate operation and they know and understand league/tournament bowlers as well as the open play side.  It will be impossible to make everyone totally happy (especially bowlers) but I think the new place will be light years ahead of what 20th was.

 Don't worry so much about the name, just be glad someone wants to be in the bowling business bad enough to go to the trouble it is going to take to get the place put back together and running again.

 In this era of "not enough revenue in a bowling center", just be glad that it IS going to be one. They could've just cut their losses and sold out to some other type business instead.

It's been a while since the last post in this thread.

KingPins opens on June 13th 2016!  I got a sneak peek and though it was still under construction it looks amazing.  It will be the nicest place in Portland for sure, probably the whole Pacific Northwest.

It is hard to believe that place was the crappy run down 20th Century Lanes.  Check out www.mykingpins.com - no full pictures yet but if you click on the Instagram icon on the top left there is one picture where you can sort of see what it will look like.  Notice the exposed rafters in the ceiling.

that picture of the exposed rafters is nice! It definitely fits in with the locale of the area, especially with the lumber industry. And it is relieving to know that this is coming along well, as my family and I will potentially be heading up that way soon, and knowing that there will be at least 2 nice alleys up there is good to know.

Kingpins, though... While to the league/tournament bowler, we'd roll our eyes (stigma from the movie), for the open bowler, it does make for some recognition.. Rose Bowl would have been more apropos for the area (City of Roses), but reminds me of the old King Louie days.. I guess they erred more on the side of recognition..

Either way, glad to see this is coming along well, and wish that other alleys could undergo renovations, as they surely need it (Yes, I'm looking at you, Sacramento!).

BL.