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Bowling alley rolls in Harlem

BY FARNOOSH TORABI | SPECIAL TO amNEWYORK

April 17, 2006

Harlem Lanes, a new bowling alley on the corner of Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and West 126th Street, reaffirms two recent trends: Harlem's economic rebirth and bowling's evolution beyond beer leagues.

Sharon Joseph, a former Wall Street banker opened the joint this month with her aunt and best friend, Gail Richards, a clinical psychologist and real estate broker. They are the first black women in the country to own a bowling alley.

They pinned down the idea in 2002 after noticing that despite an influx of families to the neighborhood, Harlem lacked outlets for family fun.

"I was living in Harlem and I was looking for a place to take my 5-year-old daughter to have play dates," Joseph said.

Opening a bowling alley seemed like the perfect solution: Bowling, after all, is the most popular indoor sport in the United States, and 125th Street, Richards said, attracts more tourists than any area of the city other than Times Square.

Investors, though, weren't convinced that a bowling center in the heart of Harlem could thrive. It had been nearly 30 years since the neighborhood claimed a bowling alley, and in the past 20 years, the city's roster of bowling alleys had shrunk from about 15 to roughly four.

To prove it could work, Joseph and Richards became bowling alley junkies. Every weekend for six months, they visited countless alleys in the city and beyond, picking bowlers' brains and interviewing the alleys' general managers. They discovered that a bowling alley is typically owned by a family, and that if it shuts down, it's usually because there was no one left to inherit it. In other words, Joseph said, "Bowling alleys don't fail because of bad business."

The pair's homework eventually paid off. Four years and $4.7 million later, Harlem Lanes was born with some funding from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, the New York City Investment Fund and equity investors. Even President Bill Clinton's foundation pitched in.

In its opening weeks, the 25,000-square-foot duplex bowling alley has proven a hotspot for families. Last weekend it was swarming with children wearing birthday hats, and parents.

The crowd doesn't stop there. Themed events, such as glow-in-the dark bowling, are an early hit with teens. And with its plush leather furniture, plasma TVs, dining menu and sports bar on the second floor, Harlem Lanes attracts a crowd of young professionals and tourists at night as well as people of all ages.

"We had this one bowler a couple weeks ago who was 92," Richards said. "She was so excited."

Farnoosh Torabi is the business producer at NY1 News. If you know a small business with an interesting story, please e-mail her at AMSmallBusiness[at]gmail.com.