Plans to raze a beloved Queens bowling alley to make way for housing cleared a significant hurdle this week with a green light from the borough president, paving the way for the alley’s transformation into hundreds of new apartments.
Whitestone Lanes has been a mecca for bowlers and a staple of the Flushing community for decades. The Daily News first reported in June that owner Marco Macaluso had kicked off the rezoning process to allow for the site to be replaced with a nine-floor residential building — to the devastation of longtime patrons.
And while specifics around the new housing are still being worked out, the development team has made it clear the bowling alley’s days are numbered.
An attorney for the Macaluso family, which owns Whitestone Lanes, confirmed as much at a meeting of the local Queens Community Board 7 last month.
“[Original owner Marco Macaluso Sr.] built this building with his blood, sweat and tears, by the skin of his teeth some 40 or 50 years ago — you never thought he’d be here today asking you to rezone the property,” Eric Palatnik said, according to the Queens Chronicle. “It wasn’t his intention. Bowling alleys were the newest, biggest fad at the time — tells you how long ago it was. … They’re not a fad anymore. It’s over, and they are over, too, and they know it.”
The process is moving ahead after Queens Borough President Donovan Richards conditionally approved the application this week as part of the city’s monthslong land use review procedure.
“To see this site developed is great,” Richards said during a public hearing on the issue last Thursday. “As somebody who passes by it all the time, when I saw this application go in I said, ‘Hallelujah.’”
The local community board voted almost unanimously in favor last month but with several stipulations.
One issue was the number of apartments: the original plan would bring 415 units, 113 of which would be affordable, and 200 parking spaces. The board asked for a reduction to 350 units with 91 affordable and at least 300 parking spots due to concerns about the impact on traffic.
Richards pushed back during the hearing and in his written recommendation in calling for the maximum 415 units, citing the ongoing housing crisis.
Michael Nussbaum, a representative for the development team, told the Daily News they plan on sticking with the 415-unit plan. But he added that in the meantime Whitestone Lanes is still open for business and regularly hosting bowling leagues.
“It won’t close until everything is certified and construction begins. It’s going to remain open until that point,” he said. “Nobody takes down a building prior to making sure that everything is done, So there’s no intention of closing the bowling alley because it’s being certified at some particular date. The bowling alley will continue serving the community … until the construction ball hits the wall.”
He added there have already been inquiries from members of the public hoping to save parts of the bowling alley as memorabilia or to be preserved in a bowling museum, something he said the Macalusos are “considering.”
But there is no official closure date on the horizon as the land use process continues, with the application going to the City Planning Commission next.
Nussbaum made it clear there is plenty of time yet for New Yorkers hoping to bowl a few rounds.
“There are still leagues there every day,” he said. “The place is busy, and no one is going to be shutting down until this development is ready to be built.”
