Brunswick Outfits New Indoor Fun Center In The Heart Of Outdoors Wonderland

By and large, people come to little Rangeley, Maine (full-time population just north of 1,000), to revel in its abundant outdoor recreations that range from amazing fishing and boating in warmer months to snowmobiling and cross-country skiing in winter. But entrepreneur Nancy Bessey recognized an opportunity to give all these fun-seekers an indoor and nighttime entertainment option to boot. So she sat down with Hank Harris of Brunswick Build-to-Bowl in 2010 to begin planning the area’s newest attraction.

Her Moose Alley bowling and family entertainment center opened in May 2011. The ten-lane center also houses a three-table billiards room with shuffleboard and darts, a prize redemption arcade, a private party room for gatherings of up to 50 people, and an extensive Snack Bar with full bar and specialties including flatbread pizzas and signature sandwiches. Moose Alley offers fun for all ages during the day – something that couldn’t be said for the bar that formerly occupied the space. In the evening, particularly on weekends, Moose Alley transforms into more of an adult nightlife venue with live music and a hopping dance floor every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.

The center’s interior design features plenty of nods to the region’s great outdoors, with highlights including rich parquet wood flooring, columns of stacked river stone and chandeliers sporting racks of moose antlers. There’s also a spacious indoor open fire pit area surrounded by seating where guests can enjoy food, drink, and conversations.

Ms. Bessey hired Brunswick to simplify the building process while retaining complete, single-contact control over the entire project. Brunswick managed the square-footage addition to the existing building, its re-imaging and execution with the architect, contractor, subcontractors and vendors, delivering a turnkey finished project to the owner.

“Since the weather gets wintery early up there, we had to take special measures to proceed with construction and complete the project on time,” said Brunswick’s Hank Harris, vice president of design and construction. For example, the ground was covered with heated, insulated blankets to keep it warm. The roof was installed before the sidewalls. And the concrete floor bases for the bowling lanes were poured after the building was put up. The finished building was outfitted with all new, top-of-the-line Brunswick equipment, from Anvilane™ synthetic lanes to super comfy and attractive living-room-style Striking Line furniture to GS-X™ pinsetters and Vector® Plus scoring/center management system, the industry standards for reliable and full-functioned operations. For good measure, the owner also installed Brunswick Lightworx lane lighting and Pinball Wizard automatic bumper bowling systems, 9-foot Brunswick tournament edition billiards tables, and spectacular Brunswick Lanescape video masking units over each lane.

“This is just a wonderful and beautiful place where I spend most of my time now,” said Bessey. “It’s like a big warm hug that never lets you go. I love it and I’m so grateful to Brunswick and the whole team that made this incredible vision a reality.”