By Lily Soto and Sydney Shaw

Brothers Ethan and Uri Wurtzel jumped at the opportunity to save Suburban Lanes, a 60-year-old bowling alley in Decatur. When real-estate behemoth Selig Enterprises announced its plans to redevelop the alley’s home, Suburban Plaza, the community favorite nearly shut down. Having owned Twain’s Brewpub and Billiards for quite a time, however, the brothers intend to use their restaurant ownership experience to reinvigorate the alley, which they will call Comet Pub and Lanes, while also expanding their expertise—one lane at a time.

“We heard that the bowling alley, Suburban Lanes, was going to be closing down and that they were looking for someone to come along and takeover,” Uri said. “We have Twain’s, [but] we’ve been looking for some things to do, another project to take on for a little while.”

Thomas and Trisha Walker, the previous owners, were living outside of the country when the alley’s future fell into jeopardy. Under Selig ownership of the property, the Walkers realized that monetary concerns made keeping a hold on the property infeasible.

“I think they were happy that someone came along and bought everything from them; because if someone hadn’t, it would’ve been a disaster for them financially.” Uri said.

Initially, it was undecided whether Suburban Lanes would remain a bowling alley or be repurposed into something completely different. Bill Stogner of Selig Enterprises, for instance, expressed interest toward converting the 9,000-square-foot space into a bookstore. It took the Wurtzel brothers coming on board to finally convince the developers to keep the essence of the alley and its location. But the new owners aim to upgrade the venue by bringing in games, a full restaurant and bar and revamped equipment.

“We’re going to put in a new kitchen, bar, video games, pinball games and shuffleboard,” Uri said. “There should be a lot more to do there. It’s going to be a lot cleaner, and it’s going to be a more vintage bowling alley—it’ll be a fun space to hangout.”

Uri hopes the upgrade will draw more customers, but will also bring back a lot of Suburban Lanes regulars.

“We are hoping to keep the same core group of people and many of those people were league bowlers,” Uri said. “We want to continue that, especially during the day and weeknights, but we want to have livelier and busier crowds and more people coming in to just have fun and bowl.”

For the most part, the community seems to be content with the upgrade. Grady junior Hannah Stockdale enjoyed spending time at Suburban Lanes but looks forward to seeing what the new owners have in store.

“I think the update will be great,” Stockdale said. “It was kind of a grungy place, so I’m excited to see how nice they’ll make it.”

Other former patrons are not as thrilled with the refurbishing of the historic alley. Grady alumnus Graham Ruder was satisfied with the previous condition of Suburban Lanes and is not sure if he will go as frequently now.

“Pretty much everything about Suburban appealed to me: the prices, the atmosphere, the lane quality, the staff and the people who bowled there,” Ruder said. “The thing about the old Suburban was the atmosphere attracted a lot of different crowds and age groups. The new place sounds like it will be more appealing for older people. People my age don’t want to go out and spend 30-plus on a night out. Most high school and college kids don’t have that kind of money.”

Nevertheless, the construction process is in full-swing, and the Wurtzel brothers plan to be opening up in December, 2015 or January, 2016.