Long an east side Vancouver family favorite, it's hard to spend any time in Southwest Washington without hearing about Big Al's.
However, with a feature in a national publication and a soon-to-be completed Beaverton location, this 10-pin entertainment complex's renown seems poised to grow even larger.
Last week, Bowling Center Management Magazine selected the Kirkwood family, the owners of Big Al's, as their Proprietors of the Year.
"We were all very excited, especially since this honor is voted on by our peers in the bowling industry," said Daniel Kirkwood, co-owner of Big Al's and son of the business' namesake, Al Kirkwood.
According to marketing manager Brad Lechtenberg, Big Al's has done well during the downturn, with the second Beaverton location scheduled to open in August. The new location will be 10 percent larger than the original Big Al's, Lechtenberg said, and will include an indoor virtual golf course, among other brand-new offerings.
The Kirkwood family's development company, Kirkwood and Kirkwood, is also helping develop a portion of the site at Beaverton's Progress Ridge Town Center, which will include a second, soon-to-be opened location of Clark County-based Cinetopia.
Long a player in Clark County's development sector, the Kirkwood family planned Big Al's business model carefully, visiting several different establishments across the county, as well as hiring market analysts to provide the best experience for their customers before opening the Vancouver complex in 2006, Daniel Kirkwood said.
"They really wanted to do this for the community. Something unique, family-oriented, that Vancouver hadn't seen before," Lechtenberg said.
The result is Big Al's 60,000-square-foot east Vancouver entertainment complex, boasting 42 bowling lanes, a 100-game arcade and bar and grill with 76 plasma screen TVs and a 8-by-36 foot jumbo-tron screen.
Out-of-state magazines aren't the only ones to laude Big Al's achievements. In 2007, they won Start-up of the Year at VBJ's Business Growth Awards, as well as a Center of Excellence Award from national sporting equipment and support company Brunswick Bowling & Billiards.
And according to Daniel Kirkwood, the business will stay in Vancouver for many years to come, with a new generation at Big Al's continuing to adapt to their customers' needs.
