Jim Bristow is a general contractor in Ballard who specializes in green, sustainable structures. He also loves to bowl.

As Bristow sees it, Ballard must sustain a bowling alley. Now that Sunset Bowl is closed and will inevitably face the bulldozer's wrath, he wants a new facility he would name the Sunrise Bowl to shine in Ballard and replace the ashes of the former local icon.

His Web site, www.savesunsetbowl.com, declares, "Keep the ball rolling," and boasts nearly four thousand signatures on his petition of like-minded bowlers.

"People are confused and say, 'You're wasting your time. It's too late to save the alley,'" said Bristow. "But the whole gist of it is to keep bowling in Ballard," he said. Bristow was a weekly regular at Sunset Bowl. He said his 7-year-old daughter attended five birthday parties a year there.

"We need indoor entertainment in Ballard," he said, and pointed out that he had offered to lease the Sunset Bowl for an additional year and a half beyond its April 13 closing date.

He said his offer died as a result of complicated negotiations with the former and new owners, licensing issues, and other bureaucracy. He did walk away with some bowling pins at the alley's auction, and 2-by 10-inch boards once anchored under the laminated alleys he will recycle for a current building project.

"We've got a hundred coffee shops and overpriced boutiques," he said. "Mayor Nickels told me 'I built you a library.' I told him we couldn't have a bunch of screaming kids at birthday parties in the library."

Bristow would like AvalonBay Communities, who bought Sunset Bowl and will build apartments there, to include in its building scheme a new 20,000 square-foot bowling alley on a floor above the parking garage and below the first level of apartments and shops. According to Bristow and several news sources, they have shown lukewarm interest in the idea.

Bristow's Plan-B is to persuade others to invest with him in a new bowling alley site. He met with Ballard commercial developer, Barry Hawley, to pencil out the real estate costs starting from scratch.

"The problem is that Ballard is so expensive," said Hawley. "Jim's is looking for a 30,000 square foot lot with a 20,000 square foot building. That could cost $4 million in Ballard," he said.

"Apartment buildings are more profitable than bowling alleys," said Hawley with a trace of regret. Still, Hawley is sympathetic to Bristow's dream and said such a project could be viable. "Even salmon have to swim upstream," he said.

"As a contractor I know these prices escalate," Bristow acknowledged. "The property with a basic structure might cost $4 million, but a finished bowling alley would be closer to $10 million." He said commercial rents are around $35 per square foot a year, or $700,000 annually for a 20,000 square foot building, which he said is impractical. But he's not giving up.

The complex would save on energy by Bristow's design of a huge solar roof he said, in addition to providing a place people in Ballard could walk or bike to without burning gas.

"I've sat down with Jim and think a new bowling alley in Ballard would be a good buffer between a residential and industrial area," said Keith Dingfield, vice president of lending at Peoples Bank in Ballard. He said it was too early in the game to speculate if he had a loan for the Sunrise Bowl. "Once a property has been identified, we'd go from there," he said. "I have two kids, 6 and 8, and I would like Ballard to have the amenity (of bowling.) I am receptive to Jim's idea."

Dingfield's colleague, Jennifer Patterson, marine loan representative at Peoples Bank, credited the Sunset Bowl with changing her life.

"I was new in the area and wondered what I could do to meet people," she recalled. "I joined a league at Sunset Bowl and was put on a team with all guys. Jeff was on the opposing team and was trying to figure out which guy I was with. He asked me out and we were married a year later." They now have three children, including twins, and would like to be able to take their family to a neighborhood bowling alley.

"You've got to have development so you don't die on the vine," said former Sunset Bowl fixture, Bert Stubbs, a retired printer, who likes to park and hang out by his car next to the colorful but tattered building for sentimental reasons. He wrote down the bowling alley as his home address on Bristow's petition.

"Development has to be responsible, and the next generation needs to channel it in the right direction," said Stubbs.

Whether that includes Bristow's 25-lane dream remains to be seen.

Steve Shay may be reached at steves@robinsonnews.com