Right up our alley: Bowling comes to Santa Fe
Local couple, tired of driving to ABQ, opens 12 lanes at DeVargas Center
SANTA FE — Joey and Hannah Padilla are used to making the trip from Santa Fe to Albuquerque to find some family fun. When it’s warm, the Santa Fe couple and their two kids, ages 6 and 8, can find plenty to do outdoors in the area. And during the colder months, they do enjoy places like Meow Wolf and the Children’s Museum.
“But you can only do those so many times before the kids are bored,” Hannah Padilla said. That leaves the family often driving to the big city for a wider array of kid-friendly options, like indoor trampoline gyms or bowling alleys.
It was on one of those drives south during the winter of 2016 that got the Padillas thinking about filling the void themselves. Earlier this month, they announced plans to build a bowling alley and multi-entertainment spot at the DeVargas Center mall on the north edge of downtown.
Their original plan was an indoor trampoline park. After several months of planning, Hannah said, they hit roadblocks with ceiling height requirements in existing buildings, and they couldn’t find a desirable location for a new facility. Joey Padilla had concerns about safety. Eventually, they came back to an early idea of a bowling alley.
Santa Fe hasn’t had one since the 2008 closing of Silva Lanes, which years later was transformed into Meow Wolf’s popular “House of Eternal Return” interactive art installation.
“We always thought somebody else was going to do it and we just got tired of waiting,” Joey Padilla said about bringing back bowling. “So we’re going to do it.”
The Alley will take up about 20,000 square feet on DeVargas’ west side, with the goal of bringing in at least 150 patrons daily. In addition to 12 lanes, it will have bocce ball, shuffleboard, darts, pool tables and an arcade.
Construction is expected to start in May, and an opening could come in late summer or fall of this year.
The business will become part of the mall property’s effort to revamp, with new stores and ongoing interior updates.
Since late 2015 — and as recently as last week — DeVargas has opened its doors to nine local businesses that were once in the now-closed Sanbusco Market Center. The Railyard’s former retail center will become the new home of the New Mexico School for the Arts.
“With the advent of The Alley, it solidifies the entertainment use you want to see in a center (like DeVargas),” said Katy Fitzgerald, DeVargas’ senior project manager.
She said bowling will give DeVargas an entertainment draw in a “different and better” way than the now-closed Regal Cinema, which was considered out of date.