Post #493071 by Mo-Eye on Tue, Nov 10, 2009 11:21 AM

I found some more info which helps explain its demise.

The bowling alley and the attached amusement park, which was quite large, were owned by the Hankins Family. They neglected the park for years and maintenance became a real problem. In April 1976, right before the opening of the season, the major roller coaster rides were inspected. All 3 needed a major overall or a total rebuilding at a cost estimated at $1 million. With that news, the Hankins announced within days that the park would not reopen.

After that, they shortly had a going out of business sale and stared selling everything in the park, including rides and structures. Then, the park would just sit there until 1977, when they announced that it would be sold to Pan American Associates, who announced they would build a $25 million regional mall in 1978.

There were lengthy negotiations with the township about the mall. They were forced to shrink the size of it and did not get final approval until May 1979.

In the meantime, the Hankin family was engulfed in their own legal dispute over this sale. The total value of all of their holdings was nearly $64 million. After a number of lawsuits, the sale that was announced in 1977 didn't actually go through until September 1980. The outcome of all the legal battling was the court ordered sale of all the family's property. After this judgement, demolition began and the property was completely bare within 3 weeks at the end of September.

So with this story, I would assume that everything inside the bowling alley was sold off, then the empty shell sat there for over 4 years, so there probably wasn't much anyone could do with it.