A year after a Minnesota outfit announced plans to renovate and reopen Waialae Bowl, the doors to the bowling alley remain closed and the building is so quiet that you can hear a pin drop.

But a representative for Michael and Matthew Anderson, whose family owns five Colonial Lanes centers in Minnesota, said last week that the family is still committed to its plan to reopen the lanes. The Andersons formed Waialae Bowl Inc. to take over the old bowling lanes that closed at the end of February 2008.

Last August, a company representative appeared before the Honolulu Liquor Commission to request a liquor license, which the representative said was necessary to securing a lease on the lanes. Adam Apo, a Kaimukí High School graduate and former U.S. amateur bowling champion who manages one of Colonial Lanes' centers, told the commission that a license would allow the company to get the lease, refurbish the 50-year-old Waialae Bowl, and have it open by the end of 2008.

In September, the commission granted Waialae Bowl a liquor license, but the document was never claimed and renovation work never began. The commission placed the matter on its Oct. 22 agenda to review the status of the project and decide whether it should rescind the liquor license.

Apo flew in from Minnesota to appear before the five-member panel, but said little at the hearing. He said his company is working to get bids on the project and hopes to have final architectural plans by Thursday.

He assured the commission that his company has not dropped its plan to return bowling to Waialae Bowl. If the lanes are reopened, Apo said he will return to Hawaii to manage the lanes.

"We're sticking to the original plan," he said.

Apo declined comment after the hearing.

Kelli Wilinski of Colliers Monroe Friedlander, managing agent for landowner Kamehameha Schools, said once the construction plans are completed, her firm will seek contractors' estimates on the project. She said Waialae Bowl and Kamehameha Schools can then work on the terms of a lease.

"One of the concerns that has stalled the negotiations and the lease was the tenant has some issues about the construction work that needed to be done to the interior of the premise," Wilinski said. She did not go into details, however.

COST CONCERNS

Last year, Apo said the Andersons anticipated spending $1.4 million to renovate Waialae Bowl. Neither he nor Wilinski would comment on whether cost estimates have increased since then.

Liquor Commissioner Iris Okawa told Apo that she was concerned because a year has gone by since the liquor license was granted, but no work has been done.

"When you came in for the application, we thought the lease was in progress and almost there," Okawa said. "Why has it taken so long? You don't even have a plan for construction in place. How long is it going to take?"

Apo did not offer a timeline for the project, except to say the architectural plans should be completed this week.

Wilinski also could not say how much longer it will take, but she did say that she will "push fairly rigorously with the contractors to get quotes."

She said the lease "is basically at a stage where we were ready to sign off on it, and then there were some concerns that came up by the tenant about what really the costs were going to be."

The commission voted to give the parties six months to work out their issues before deciding what to do with the liquor permit.

Businessman Frank Yamamoto opened Waialae Bowl in 1958, but shut it down when his 50-year lease with Kamehameha Schools ended.

He said last year that rent and other costs became too high and he could no longer keep the lanes open.

In the past 60 years, nearly 30 bowling alleys have shut down statewide. There are only three public bowling alleys remaining on Oahu and one, Pali Lanes in Kailua, is set to close at the end of the year.

The two others are Aiea Bowl and Leeward Bowl.