Plaza Bowl Family Buying Paradise West, Renaming it Paradise Plaza

Paradise West is morphing into Paradise Plaza now that the Landreman family - longtime proprietors of Plaza Bowl - is taking over the old bowling alley.

And while Plaza Bowl will close, Gregg Landreman said long-time customers and friends will see the same quality once remodeling is complete at Paradise.

"Our goal is to create a family entertainment and recreation destination," he said. "There's a lot of work to be done (at Paradise) and we're going to get started right away."

Lanes will remain open while work is being done, Landreman added, but there are going to be some pretty significant changes including closing Mixers nightclub, adding the family's signature Tommy's Restaurant as Tommy's on Twenty and remodeling the bar and banquet hall areas to make them more appealing.

Paradise Plaza will still host sand volleyball leagues, and the Paradise Pro Shop will also stay put.

The Landremans plan to bring over from Plaza much of what they put in like the auto-scoring system; seating; furniture; bumpers and gutters so all lanes are equiped with them; and a bar with all its amenities to replace one of the bars at Paradise.

Landreman and his brother, John, close Wednesday on the sale of Paradise for between $1.4 and $1.7 million. The deal came fast, Landreman added.

"We were interested two years ago but we couldn't agree on the terms," he said. "So, we tried again and started working on this in January. By March we had an accepted offer and now we're closing."

Patch called Paradise West to speak with owner R.J. Guarascio, but he wasn't in yet. We did leave a message and will update this story after we talk to him.

Landreman said they're looking forward to paying a mortgage for ownership instead of just a lease and to making the changes that will bring back the bowling crowds of years past.

"We're looking forward to owning our own place," he said. "We want to see the place filled up like in years past."

Part of filling up the place could mean the return of state bowling tournaments, which brings hundreds of bowlers and their families to Racine County to stay in hotels, eat in restaurants and shop at local stores.

John Knudsen, manager of the Racine Bowling Association, agrees. The RBA has 1,700 members.

"That would be great to be able to start planning for a tournament here again," he said.

Scheduling hosts is done three or four years out, Knudsen added, but as long as Paradise Plaza can offer the required number of lanes at reasonable prices, there's a good chance tournaments could return to the area.

Landreman said demolition is expected to begin Thursday, but there isn't a real timeline in place because architects are still drawing up plans that have to approved by Mount Pleasant and the state. Plus, he added, work is never really over.

"When we took over Plaza Bowl 20 years, ago, it was on the verge of closing," he said. "So really we're just trading one 20-year project for another one because just when you think you're done for a while, it's time to update."