WOONSOCKET – Rhode Island’s northernmost tenpin bowling center will have a new owner just before the summer begins.
Bourne, Mass.-based Ryan Family Amusements will assume control of Walnut Hill Bowl at 1666 Diamond Hill Road and become the 32-lane center’s new primary owner on June 1. Ryan Family signed a 20-year lease with the new property owner, WHP Investments LLC, to operate Walnut Hill Bowl – which will become Ryan’s at Walnut Hill – company President Billy Campbell told Providence Business News on Tuesday.
Robert Toth, who also owns Old Mountain Lanes Inc. in South Kingstown, had operated Walnut Hill Bowl since 2006. He took over after Brusnwick Corp., the previous operator, did not renew its lease and the bowling center was back then at risk of closing permanently.
Ryan Family will now have 11 locations across Rhode Island and Massachusetts after taking over Walnut Hill Bowl, seven of them with bowling. Ryan Family’s
Raynham location has 16 lanes for candlepin and tenpin bowling. The Newport location on Thames Street, though, is solely arcade games.
The current Walnut Hill Bowl building, built in the mid-1970s after the previous bowling center structure there was destroyed by fire, is part of the 1500 Diamond Hill Road property that includes the Walnut Hill Plaza shopping center. WHP Investments back in late December acquired that property from Walnut Hill Holdings LLC for $6.3 million.
Campbell told PBN the new property owner wanted to redevelop the Walnut Hill Plaza area and needed an “anchor tenant of entertainment.” WHP Investments reached out to Ryan Family at the end of 2024 and subsequently worked out a deal with the entertainment company that “was impossible to say no to,” Campbell said.
Campbell, an Attleboro native, has been long familiar with Walnut Hill Bowl both growing up and working for Ryan Family. The company had arcade games within the bowling center dating back to the late 1980s, he said.
“[Walnut Hill Bowl] was always a very busy, clean facility,” Campbell said. “When I went back in there recently, I was very pleasantly surprised to see how clean it still was. It’s got a lot of upside for some fresh reinvestment to continue the [ongoing] success.”
Toth told PBN he invested approximately $1 million in upgrading Walnut Hill Bowl, including installing new lanes, new scoring systems and upgrading the bar area, since leasing the building for the past 19 years. Along with leagues and family parties, Walnut Hill Bowl also has since hosted many local and regional bowling tournaments.
Toth said while he’s excited for Walnut Hill Bowl’s future under Ryan Family’s ownership, it is bittersweet for him to not oversee the center’s day-to-day operations after June 1 due to the relationships he built there over time.
“I’m going to miss the people because my heart is in the bowling [industry],” said Toth, who also noted this change does not impact his Old Mountain Lanes operation. “I forged some real close friendships over the years and I’m going to miss that part of it. I think [Ryan Family] are good people and I think they’ll be real good operators.”
Approximately 20 employees currently work at the bowling center, Toth said. Campbell said Ryan Family will not only offer all those employees to remain with the center but also plans to increase its staff to as many as 60 employees.
Come June 1, Ryan Family will also conduct significant renovations to the building’s interior while the property owner installs a new roof and HVAC system, Campbell said. He said Ryan Family will invest approximately $1 million to $2 million to remove eight lanes and increase the arcade’s size. About 60-70 arcade and virtual reality games will be installed, he said. New automatic scoring and upgrades to the bar area will also be made, Campbell said. Most equipment, including the lanes, will remain in the building.
Campbell also said the bowling center will remain open for bowling while the phased renovation – which will last until the fall – takes place.
One business will not continue at Walnut Hill Bowl with Ryan Family taking over. Strike F/X Pro Shops LLC will close its shop there on May 2, shop co-owner Jonathan Van Hees announced on his company’s Facebook page, citing there will no longer be space for a pro shop after Ryan Family assumes ownership.
Van Hees said the Walnut Hill Bowl location had “begun to change the culture, growing our lesson base and helping service an area rich in bowlers” since opening there 10 months ago. He also said he knew that new ownership coming in was possible after agreeing to open his store at the bowling center last summer and hoped for a longer stay but is pleased the center will still house bowling under Ryan Family.
Campbell said Ryan Family is “not opposed” to having a pro shop in its bowling centers. But he said the company will need to see if there’s additional available space “down the line” to house one at Walnut Hill Bowl. Strike F/X will still operate in several bowling centers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including in East Providence, South Kingstown, North Kingstown, Cranston, Somerset and New Bedford.
Accommodating the approximately 700 league bowlers who compete regularly at Walnut Hill Bowl will also be a priority for Ryan Family, Campbell said, including still holding leagues this summer. He also feels about 90% of the leagues will fit in the new 24-lane space and “all will be welcomed back.”
“We will want to have an open house-type [conversation] with league bowlers,” Campbell said. “People get nervous when there’s a little bit of change. With what we’re trying to accomplish, I think they will like the end result. We’re going to carry on the tradition and [Toth’s] vision from 2006, and make it bigger and better to where he’s proud from a distance.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
