REVS Burnaby bowling alley sold for redevelopment potential into over 1,600 homes

Apr 28 2023, 4:09 pm

If all goes as planned, REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre will be redeveloped into a high-density, mixed-use redevelopment, adding to the long and growing list of new major transit-oriented development projects near SkyTrain stations within Burnaby.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized, Julian Ward, the vice president of development for Keltic Development Canada, said his company finalized the deal for acquiring REVS Burnaby last month. The location has served as a regional bowling destination for more than six decades.

By far and large, he says, the transit-oriented development potential of the bowling alley’s large site, coupled with the prescription for a high-density, tower-based project in the municipal government’s community plan for the area, caught his firm’s interest.

REVS Burnaby is located at 5502 Lougheed Highway — immediately west of SkyTrain Holdom Station.

The property spans 4.3 acres, with the two-storey bowling alley building occupying about half of the footprint and a surface parking lot making up for the remaining half.

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REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre at 5502 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby. (Google Maps)

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REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre at 5502 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby. (Google Maps)

The value of the acquisition was not disclosed, but BC Assessment’s latest roll, as of July 2022, shows the property has an assessed value of $100.8 million, with $100.5 million from the value of the land and the building worth just over $200,000.

This is up from the assessed value range of $82 million to $86 million between 2017 and 2021.

The real change in assessment value occurred between 2016 and 2017, when the assessed value more than doubled year-over-year from $36.7 million to $82.4 million — a reflection of BC Assessment’s interpretation of the value of the full development potential of the site, based on community plans and nearby high-density rezonings setting precedent. In contrast, just a decade earlier in 2013, the property was assessed for $21.8 million.

Ward says planning work for the proposal is in the very preliminary stages, but they are considering the possibility of two or three high-rise towers, along with the associated base podiums. The building heights could range between 35 storeys and 55 storeys.

revs burnaby bowling 5502 lougheed highway

REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre at 5502 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby. (Google Maps)

revs burnaby bowling 5502 lougheed highway

REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre at 5502 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby. (Google Maps)

As for uses, he says there could potentially be roughly 1,400 new strata market homes, including condominiums and townhouses. This would be in addition to the municipal government’s inclusionary rental housing requirement for such sites and projects, where developers must top off their total residential unit count with an additional rental housing component — based on a formula of providing rental housing equivalent to 20% of the total market ownership housing count. The rents for these rental homes are set at 20% below CMHC market median rents.

With strata market homes and inclusionary rental housing combined, the bowling centre redevelopment could potentially generate a ballpark of as many as up to over 1,600 new homes.

In addition to the residential uses, there would be a commercial space component of between 20,000 sq ft and 40,000 sq ft. The precise commercial uses have not been determined at this early stage.

“We would entertain REVS or another bowling business if they were to approach us,” said Ward, when asked whether a new smaller replacement bowling alley is possible. “If the numbers work, we’ll definitely entertain it.”

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Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the redevelopment of REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre at 5502 Lougheed Highway. (Studio One Architecture)

revs burnaby bowling centre redevelopment 5502 lougheed highway studio one architecture 1

Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the redevelopment of REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre at 5502 Lougheed Highway. (Studio One Architecture)

There is already some regional precedent for integrating a bowling alley into a new high-density development. Metro Vancouver’s newest bowling alley is King Pins Bowling, located in Central Lonsdale in North Vancouver, which has five 10-pin lanes in an underground space within a new high-rise residential and retail tower.

Currently, following the acquisition, REVS’ remaining time at the location is on a month-to-month basis, with demolition possibly 12 to 18 months away — assuming the municipal government follows its typical timeline for processing and reviewing the proposal. The formal rezoning application will likely be submitted this fall.

He adds that one of his team’s first steps in formulating a design is addressing the on-site environmental issue of Beecher Creek, which is an open watercourse that frames the property to the west, and transitions into a culvert just to the south. The development will enhance the natural features of the creek, and improve its ability to be a salmon-bearing habitat.

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REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre at 5502 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby. (REVS)

revs burnaby bowling 5502 lougheed highway

REVS Burnaby Bowling Centre at 5502 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby. (REVS)

The existing bowling alley building was first constructed in 1962, and it was originally known as Brentwood Lanes, before a change in ownership that brought it under the REVS brand.

According to REVS’ website, its Burnaby location is Western Canada’s largest 10-pin bowling centre with 48 lanes, capable of accommodating up to 300 people in one shift. In addition to the bowling lanes, dining areas, and other ancillary spaces, the 64,00 sq ft building also has a fitness gym to help bowlers build up their swing strength.

REVS also has a bowling alley location in Maple Ridge, but with 10 lanes, it is significantly smaller than the Burnaby location.

Across Metro Vancouver, bowling alleys have been dwindling in number over the decades, especially the larger bowling centres.

The next largest local bowling destinations after REVS Burnaby are Zone Bowling in Coquitlam (next to the Cineplex theatre), which has 38 lanes, including 12 five-pin lanes and 26 10-pin lanes, and Lucky 9 Lanes (next to Cineplex’s SilverCity Riverport Cinemas) in the Riverport Sports & Entertainment Complex in Richmond, which has 28 10-pin lanes and 12 five-pin lanes. Lucky 9 Lanes was previously known as The Zone Bowling, until 2016 when it changed hands.

Some of Keltic Development Canada’s most recent projects in the region include its Paramount four-building complex of residential, office, and retail uses immediately south of SkyTrain Richmond-Brighouse Station, which reached completion in 2021, and its current construction project of a 10-storey, 100,000 sq ft office building on a site wedged between Chinatown and the future St. Paul’s Hospital campus in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats. When complete in 2025, it will be fully tenanted to US-based global medical tech firm Masimo.

Daily Hive Urbanized also reached out to REVS, but did not hear back in time for publication.

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