Page 13 - BusinessWest June 17, 2024

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East Longmeadow
of functions.
From September through April,
leagues bowl there every day of the week, he explained, adding that league bowlers don’t take all 28 lanes, but they do provide a strong, steady source of revenue. Meanwhile, beyond the leagues, interest is strong among all age groups.
Shaker Bowl is part of a business community that is, as noted earlier, large and diverse, featuring everything from a solid mix of restaurants to a
full roster of banks, with Chase being only the latest; from service businesses like HUB to a large number of distribu- tion and manufacturing facilities in the
Tom Christensen says a desire for housing options in the community has inspired efforts to create a
Town Center District with an affordable- housing option.
Continued from page 11
cially inventory that would fall into the ‘affordable’ category.
This need has led to ongoing efforts to create that aforementioned Cen-
ter Town District, a mixed-use devel- opment with an affordable-housing component.
Christensen said the goal will be
to create this district in the downtown area — not the surrounding residen- tial neighborhoods — on commercially zoned property and parcels in need of redevelopment.
“With that investment in
a new high school, I think you’re going to see more families moving into town.”
“We have some people in town who may not be able to afford to stay in their home, but want to stay in town, so it’s incumbent on us to pro- vide an option,” he explained, adding that town leaders have engaged the public in the process, asking them what they want and don’t want from such an initiative.
Enthusiasm to Spare
Greeley told BusinessWest that, while he didn’t grow up in East Long- meadow, he spent plenty of time at the bowling alley on Shaker Road.
“I remember Thanksgiving and Easter ... my family would get togeth- er, and we would always go bowling,” he said, adding that he has many fond memories from what can only be called a landmark.
And it is a desire to create memo- ries for some new generations of area residents that prompted a group of investors (including Greeley’s wife, Amy) to acquire the bowling alley when it came on the market roughly a year ago.
Retelling the story, Greeley said he and Adam Oliveri, a close friend and over-30 hockey teammate, were looking for businesses to buy and, while driving by Shaker Bowl one day, brought it to the top of their list of prospectives. The owner wasn’t interested in selling, however, so they started looking in other directions, only to return to their original target when it eventually came on the mar- ket in early 2023.
They added partners to the group and closed that summer. Since then, they’ve been making improvements aimed at taking advantage of steady — and, by most estimates, growing — interest in bowling, while also making the facility a destination for all kinds
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