LYNN — The former Lynnway Sportscenter building is expected to be sold by the end of next month and become a dental clinic.
The city’s last bowling alley closed in June and the building is under a purchase agreement with Patrick Assioun, who plans to open a dental clinic at the 497 Lynnway location.
Assioun received City Council approval on Wednesday night to operate and plans to move from his current Lynn location down the street, according to his attorney, John Mihos.
The practice, Patrick Assioun Dental Clinic, would open at its new location in three to four months, according to Mihos. The building would need an undisclosed amount of renovations.
“At this point, I would like to keep everything confidential,” said Assioun, who said his practice has more than 40 locations. “We’re here in Lynn. We have a presence. This is one of our good sites. We’re adding to the locations we have.”
Paul Crowley, trustee of the Lynnway Sportscenter who also serves as CEO of Greater Lynn Senior Services, said finally selling the building brought mixed emotions. He declined to disclose the amount of the sale, but said it was expected to close at the end of next month.
The building is assessed at $310,000 and the property’s assessed value is $994,300, according to city property records.
The bowling alley had been in the Crowley family since the 1960s, when his father bought the business, he said.
“As I was growing up, bowling was losing its luster and it really had just gotten to a point where there wasn’t enough people interested in bowling, so it wasn’t a viable business option,” Crowley said.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet. Another chapter in the life of the bowling business and the Crowley family (is over), but it was the right move to make at the time. I think the new use as a dentist’s office is going to be good for the city, a noncontroversial thing.”
Last June, Crowley dropped a lawsuit against the city for not choosing his Lynnway location to be a medical marijuana clinic.
Crowley was with one of four medical marijuana applicants who filed plans in 2016 to open a clinic in the city. Under his proposal, the candlepin bowling alley would have become a pot dispensary operated by the East Boston-based New England Patient Network.
The City Council ultimately chose to approve a proposal from Massachusetts Patient Foundation, now Apothca, to operate a pot shop next door to the former bowling alley.
“A medical marijuana dispensary had approached us about leasing the property,” Crowley said. “We hadn’t decided to close (at that time), but the writing was on the wall. We didn’t come to them. They came to us.”
