Bowling Center Concept To Planners
Plans include restaurant, partnering with community
By Bret Bradigan
After 12 years since it was closed, and 18 months after plans for its return began, one of the landmark relics from Ojai’s past, the old bowling alley, will come before the Planning Commission tonight for concept review.
Stacey Benotto, the developer, a retired real estate investor and operator from Los Angeles, said, “This has been a mission for me, a project very close to my heart.” As the mother of a 13-year-old daughter, a rising tennis star enrolled at the Weil Tennis Academy, and a 7-year-old son, a student at Monica Ros School, she said she felt a strong need for a place for children to have fun and be safe. But she will actively promote “an intergenerational approach, from babies to seniors.”
Besides major renovations to the 16,351 square-foot property on a nearly 1.5-acre property at 1202 W. Ojai Ave., Benotto’s proposal includes adding 475-square-foot of new construction. She estimates the total cost of renovation at $2.5 million. If the permit and construction process goes smoothly, the proposed Ojai Bowling Center will open in early 2010.
Before then, she plans to keep the community involved. “I have a web site, bowltheojai.com, where I encourage people to leave stories about their experiences with the old bowling alley, to incorporate those memories into the new one,” she said.
The proposal before the planners includes a restaurant café, called Phoenix Rising, an arcade, a party room and, perhaps, a batting cage. The number of lanes would be four less than before, and Benotto said that the bowling lanes would be pedestrian friendly, and even include a hitching post and watering trough.
The proposal is a “low-impact development,” she said, using an existing building, and using solar panels and other energy-efficient materials. The project will not require an environmental impact report, she said, since it is being used for a same purpose.
Benotto said she made a deal with Gail Bazzano, the former owner, and the property is in a long-term escrow, contingent on permit approvals with the city.
“The community has been extremely supportive. Everywhere I go people are encouraging me,” Benotto said. “Every town deserves a bowling alley,” she said. “I’m interested in relationships being built and having fun.” City planners and officials have been helpful, as well, she said. “They’ve been looking at ways they can help, for which I’m very appreciative.”
I will see you tomorrow night to support the new bowling alley and look forward to meeting Stacey Benotto and tell her thank you for investing in Ojai’s future!
Sunday
19 May 09 at 8:18 pm
Party bowling experience 2010! I hope they bring back Elvis!
Monday
20 May 09 at 7:21 am
What a waste of space. We really need another art center. That’s what I would use it for, a giant art center.
Anon.5
20 May 09 at 9:37 am
Oh. Will it still have the bar?
Anon.5
20 May 09 at 9:38 am
Please no bar, we have enough alcohol problems in this valley.
anonymous
20 May 09 at 10:39 am
It said something about a watering HOLE.
Tuesday
20 May 09 at 10:54 am
Great News! I wonder if the new owners would consider having the skate park built in a corner of their parking lot? Would solve a lot of issues about skate park placement. Couldn’t their be some sort of lease agreement with the city with a hold-harmless clause…
What do you think?
Anonymous
20 May 09 at 11:46 am
I don’t think mixing skate people with family bowlers is a good idea. Drugs and violence don’t mix with picnics! If they could have an on-site sheriff’s deputy then I think it would be okay.
Anonymous
20 May 09 at 1:27 pm
Hence the inane narcissism creeps through the lanes. Burgers, anyone? To eat and to bowl, Americanesque as arteries clog and gutters replace sewers. I prefer to bask in the warm sun, in a pool of my own vomit, lest I play video games with a mind erased.
Maury Gould
20 May 09 at 3:48 pm
Like a gutterball to the pin so shall I be when the lanes avail themselves to my glory!
Anonymous
20 May 09 at 5:13 pm
I’m all for the 3 B’s: bowling, burgers, bar!
LS
20 May 09 at 5:16 pm
What do I think? I think it’s going to be a bowling alley, that’s what I think anyway, thanks for asking anonymous. Bowling is as bowling does. At least that’s what they tell me.
Anonymous
20 May 09 at 5:17 pm
The bowling alley used to be a meeting place for all ages — it was the place to be in Ojai in the early 1960s. Wish it could come back the same way.
Old timer
21 May 09 at 5:40 am
OSL can’t WAIT to spray paint on the new bowling alleys walls!!
Anonymous
21 May 09 at 6:46 am
I think the ideal of Ojai having a bowling alley or even a new art center is dumb. I won’t ever be there.
A Person in Ojai
21 May 09 at 9:25 am
I think kids and families already have enough to do and don’t need a skate park or bowling alley.
ed newtown
21 May 09 at 11:47 am
I live in the creek, and I think it’s a great place to park my truck.
Goofer Dust
21 May 09 at 12:06 pm
By the way, I can bowl 280 …what you bitches got?..
That’s what I’m sayi’n…Yeahah!!
Goofer Dust
21 May 09 at 12:11 pm
The old bowling alley had a regular set of drunks every friday afternoon in the bar. Yes bring back the bowling alley, but leave out the bar. Get a good restaurant where you can get a burger.
anonymous
21 May 09 at 2:07 pm
OSL could spray paint it now if they wanted to, 6:46 am. In fact, they live right around the corner. It’s a great idea to rehab the place, and go ahead, put in a bar to compete with Soule Park and Giorgio’s. Put the Skate Park there too, I can see the place coming back to life! Awesome!
threesmommy
21 May 09 at 2:18 pm
No, We need bowling and boos, that’s what I’m talki’n ’bout yeahah! and a burger, maybe some fries, or a healthy alternative such as sprouts or avocado….I get indigestion…Yeahah!
Goofer Dust
21 May 09 at 3:20 pm
This doesn’t sound like a “bowling alley”. This sounds like where bowling meets art deco. Did I read about the Phoenix Cafe? Sounds pretty nice to me.
I think this type of business will fit nicely in Ojai. An old bowling alley like we had won’t and don’t need. This appears based on what I read to be more of an a entertainment complex that will feature bowling. I can’t wait to come by and check it out. If I like it I’ll bring the family back. If it’s just an old bowling alley, then we won’t. Good luck to the new owners.
Iloveojai
21 May 09 at 3:28 pm
OJAI does not need the bowling ALLEY!..A OJaI needs lemong trees and fruit quaffs. OjAi needs more artists. The good ones.
IAMOJAI
21 May 09 at 4:03 pm
Iloveojai – Do you think I can park my art-deco tent trailer in your driveway while I get hammered? I think we both love Ojai, so it’d great to have our kids run around with the Phoenix mascot, not like Chuckie Cheese, but a new one, like a Condor, morphing them into a hermaphrodite, that possibly you can relate to.
Goofer Dust
21 May 09 at 4:47 pm
By all means , let us support the people who want to revive the bowling alley!! What is there now? A big concrete box. IT is so sad to drive by what was once such a fun thing to do with your family on weekends or summer nights. I am 100% behind Ms. Benotto. My kids are all grown and gone now but I would definetly go there and play the lanes with my hubby. I like the idea of the bar too. If it is too much geared to just little kids the adults won’t come. Multi generational is the KEY.
Anonymous and retired
21 May 09 at 5:17 pm
I am laughing at this. Stacey, you have to do this. Things to do in Ojai, well, we will have a Skate Park, we will have a bowling alley with what so many complain we don’t have enough of and those are places to go with your kids, the kids can go on their own. If we are bringing up responsible kids and we’re responsible for them, if there is a bar do you think the children or their parents will allow, encourage or escort them into the confines of a bar? What are the questions one could possibly have pertaining to building a fabulous place for kids to go? Ms. Bennotto is taking this on. Finally, someone has the means to make this happen. I speak to her about it and it is a slam dunk venture. She has not much more than plain great intentions for the kids. My family drives to Skating Plus or the Ventura Bowling Alley. Every single time we go, there are at least a dozen other people from Ojai. What is wrong with having this place? Talk to the woman. She is taking it on, so what if it has an interior design you are not impressed with. How many bowling alley’s are just plain cool and the decor is what you look for? For goodness sake, we keep complaining about things and now there is someone who is going to create something fantastic. Why the relationship with the Skate Park. Its idea, in and of itself should already be in use as far as I’m concerned. I am including this in this blog because it has come up that there should be a relationship between the two venues, but each organizer of the two different venues are going to make them happen, not in spite of anything but purely for our fun and enjoyment.
stacey jones
21 May 09 at 10:10 pm
Bring back the bar! Its been a long time since I hung out there and the hut just doesn’t match up. I can’t wait to put a few back then hit the lanes and check out the girls.
joe loder
22 May 09 at 9:00 am
I agree with everyone in support. I have good childhood memories there. I have lived here for almost 40 years and am raising two children. Ms. Benotto’s seem sincere and good, we shouldn’t beat her up. As far as the OSL goes, do you know how long NYC has been trying to get rid of their sewer rat problem? You cannot get rid of them! But you can control them! And who is going to pay for the onsite officer to sit there and baby sit? Let people keep it clean, free from graffiti and the OSL and ant other cockroach gang that wants show up. I for one can’t wait until it opens.
Mike H2o
22 May 09 at 9:29 am
It would work especially if it has a game area
like Busters. An do they have a bar for the big
kids? Why,yes they do!
Ron
22 May 09 at 1:49 pm
more fruit trees, less fruits like morely guold.
IAMOJAI
22 May 09 at 3:18 pm
For all the people that want more trees and art centers…
I was born and raised in Ojai and I love it and do intend to raise my children there. But Ojai does almost nothing for the average youth in the area. so if we plant more orchards than the kids will have more places to hid and drink there beer or jack and smoke their meth or pot. I full heartedly believe that the bowling ally will help the “good” kids of Ojai stay on the right track because it will give them something to do other than sit in Libby park and get into trouble for having the resident bums buy them smokes and pot… I know this happens because I was one of those kids with nothing better to do… and I believe if there was something for me to do to keep me busy I would not have ventured down the path I did.
Ojai caters to the elderly and Arty and if you are neither of those you are kinda SOL on things to do.
So I hope that the bowling ally does get up and going and I can’t wait to bring the future Ojai generation there!
CLB
26 May 09 at 12:30 pm
screw the kids, they can churn butter for fun. we don’t need a bowling alley, we need more art centers and lemon groves
ojaimentality
28 May 09 at 10:45 pm
Let it go people regarding OSL. YOUR HA’S & DEMON HERO’S CHOOSE NOT TO CONFRONT THEM. Stop the raciest hate and they will go away.
Anonymous
2 Jun 09 at 12:36 am
I hope you get started soon my sun and I cant wate we have to go to Vertura I told him of all the fun I had at the old Topa Topa bowl. I bowled my first 50,100,150,200,and 250 game. and my first 150,up to my first 725 ser. there.
r.segar
2 Jan 10 at 8:24 am