Comet Bowl up for sale, but there’s no hurry

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Comet Bowl is for sale.

It hasn’t closed. It hasn’t gone bankrupt. It hasn’t been shut down. A person can still stop by, bowl a few frames and enjoy a tenderloin with a side of loaded cheesy fries.

There has been no private or professional tragic event to catalyze the iconic Charles City property’s placement on the market.

It’s just for sale.

“We’re not closing,” said co-owner Peggy Sweet. “I have had a lot of people ask me if new owners would keep it the way it is, and I say, ‘Why wouldn’t they?’”

Comet Bowl has been a second home for Sweet and co-owner Mark Barry, her brother, since 1972. That was the year the 18-lane bowling establishment and restaurant became their family’s business.

Barry said he’s hopeful a potential buyer will come along who understands the business. He and Sweet are expecting the sale to be a long, deliberate process.

According to both Sweet and Barry, all of their kids have an interest in the business, and all have worked at Comet Bowl at one time or another, but they don’t have an interest in running the day-to-day operations.

“They all have their hearts here, but they’ve all gone in different directions,” said Barry.

“Dad was in his 50s when he gave us the ball,” Sweet said. “We’re at the point now where we’re hoping we’ll have someone else take it and run.”

“It’s a positive thing that we’re trying to sell it,” said Barry. “Someone new might have a different perspective. We grew up in a bowling alley, this is what we know.

“This place is good, but someone could come in from the outside, with a marketing strategy that we’ve never thought about, and make this place so much better,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of potential here.”

Barry said that if and when he and Sweet are able to sell Comet Bowl, he’ll find himself a full-time job.

“I’m not going to limit my options,” he said. “I would like to find something that’s not a lot of nights and weekends.”

Sweet said that she will be “semi-retiring.” Her husband works for the city, and Sweet intends to retire when he retires, a few years from now.

The two have one other sister, Paula, who resides in Coralville.

Barry and Sweet said they don’t want to find themselves in a situation where they have to sell the place because of some unforeseen event. Rather, they want to sell it on their own terms.

“Our common thought was to get the ball rolling and see what’s out there, before we have to,” Barry said. “We don’t want to be in a position where something happens, an illness or some other event, and we find ourselves saying ‘we’ve got to get out of here now.’”

Both Barry and Sweet believe that although the bowling alley and restaurant have done very well, new owners with new ideas could make it better.

“We feel we have a very successful business, and that’s what we want to offer somebody,” said Barry. “We want to offer a place that has a lot of potential for the next person to come through here, and we believe this business is on the way up, not on the way down.”

Barry said that he has had some customers ask him if he’d sell Comet Bowl to someone who wanted to do something different with the property, which is just less than two acres of real estate on South Grand Avenue.

“This isn’t the kind of property where people are going to come in and build condominiums here,” said Barry. “It’s set up pretty well for a bowling alley right now, so I think new owners would keep it that way.”

The business went up for sale in mid-March, and price is listed at $990,000. Barry said he isn’t expecting to sell the alley quickly, and there haven’t been any serious offers in the short time it’s been on the market.

“There has been some activity at the Realtor, but essentially just some inquiries, nothing close to an offer,” Barry said.

Barry and Sweet recall the business sold for about $500,000, a little more than half the current asking price, back in 1972 when their father and his partner bought it. Comet Bowl was built in 1960.

The Barrys came to Charles City from Nebraska when their father, Loyd, and a business partner, Bob Crawford, bought Comet Bowl. Crawford knew how to run a bowling alley, and wanted Loyd to run the restaurant part of the business.

Crawford would eventually move to Muscatine and buy a bowling alley there. Loyd Barry died about nine years ago. Mark has managed Comet Bowl full-time since about 1984, and said that he and Peggy have run the establishment together for more than 20 years.

Much of the reason Comet Bowl has become such a Charles City landmark has to do with how the business has given back and connected with the community over the years.

“Charles City has been awesome to us,” Barry said. “We were raised to give back, and always help out. My dad was one of the most generous people I’ve ever met. He rarely said no, and so he kind of passed that on to us.”

“Dad was a good volunteer,” added Sweet. “He and our mom believed they should always support those who support you, so we try to support all the things we feel are important, in the school, the churches and in the community.”

Peggy has two kids who have passed through Charles City High School and Mark has had four who have gone through the district, and two more still in school in Charles City.

“Our kids have always been involved in numerous things. When we’re involved in helping the community, we’re helping the people who have helped our kids,” Barry said.

The bowling alley has been something of a community center, where people get out to see each other, and that has spanned generations.

“Some of the people who were bowling when we moved here are still bowling,” said Barry. “They’ve bowled here all their lives, and now their kids are bowling here.”

Sweet said she loves to hear stories from others who have memories of Comet Bowl.

“We’ve had families come in after a visitation, because this is where they always went when they were growing up,” said Sweet. “I’ve heard stories from a couple who have been married 20 years, and they came in here for their anniversary, because this is where they had their first date.”

Barry said that it’s the people of Charles City who have inspired him to maintain Comet Bowl through the years.

“The people that are here are here to have fun, and that’s what makes us get up and come to work every day,” he said.