Academy Lanes to close in July

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This article was published 23/06/2017 (2497 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the final frame for Academy Lanes.

After 35 years, the iconic family-run bowling alley on Academy Road will close its doors for good on July 18 — a decision that wasn’t up to its owners, but rather the property management company, which has other plans for the building when the lease is up.

The location itself has been a bowling alley for more than half a century.

Owner Todd Britton tweeted out a closing announcement Saturday afternoon and then he posted something on Facebook and emailed out 800 of the lane’s best customers.

In two short hours, Britton said he was watching the retweets and Facebook likes come in with a growing lump in his throat.

Britton said he can sum up his feelings in a word: “Sad.”

“It’s been a family-owned business my whole life. I’ve been hanging out at this place since I was five,” Britton said. “My kids think of it as the place where Dad goes to work.”

“The facility, the business, the customers, they mean a lot to us and we definitely feel like we’re letting them down,” Britton said.

Negotiations earlier this year for a new lease went poorly. The property management company rejected the family’s bid for a new lease and informed them, they had other plans for the building, Britton said.

“It really wasn’t a decision we made,” Britton said.

“For the past 35 years, the Academy Lanes family has had the privilege of providing Winnipeggers with a place to play, compete, celebrate and create memories,” the Twitter statement read.

The Brittons run two other bowling centres in the city that will remain open, the Academy Lanes West and the Billy Mosienko Lanes. They are looking for another location in the River Heights area where they can reopen the old Academy Lanes.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca

More information to come. pic.twitter.com/8SV5sIG3h0

— Academy Lanes (@academylanes) June 24, 2017