Closed Bowling Alley to Be a Skating Rink

Panorama Bowl, which has been closed for more than six years, will be renovated and reopened as an ice and roller rink, according to an executive with Recreation World, the company building the new facility.

The renovations are expected to cost $2.5 million and should be completed by the end of the year. When the work is finished, the approximately 50,000-square-foot building will enclose end-to-end, regulation-size ice and roller hockey rinks, locker rooms, showers, a party room, snack bar and pro shop, said Lisa Sutherland, marketing coordinator for Recreation World.

Part of the funds to redevelop the former bowling alley, located near Panorama Mall on Van Nuys Boulevard, came from a settlement Recreation World received from the city of Los Angeles after the company rebuilt the Ice Chalet at the Laurel Plaza shopping center in North Hollywood. The rink was rebuilt and reopened following damage sustained during the Northridge earthquake, but the mall in which the rink was located was labeled structurally deficient and shut down.

“We got the settlement because we rebuilt and then were told to tear it down,” Sutherland said. “We’ve been looking for a place to build a new rink ever since then. . . . We’re happy to build in Panorama City because there’s just not enough family entertainment to satisfy the number of people who live in that area,” she added.

Recreation World also owns Corbin Bowl in Tarzana.