From 5-year-old kids, to a 97-year-old man, Sun Villa Lanes has been the go-to spot for bowlers in Bellevue for decades, but the Eastgate alley is in its final frame.

The facility will close at the end of May, leaving hundreds of bowlers, specifically league players, looking outside of the city limits for other options.

“For the seniors, (bowling) is the highlight of the week,” said C.J. Harms, president of a Monday afternoon league that has nearly 100 bowlers.

The bowlers, along with employees at Sun Villa, found out about the closure in a meeting last week. Harms and others said the room was filled with teary eyes and solemn faces.

Rumors abound on social media that the building would be demolished to build a parking garage for Michael’s Toyota, the alley’s southern neighbor. That isn’t the case, according to representatives of Skymatt LLC, the owner of the property for both the lanes and the car dealership.

AMF, which operates the facility, planned to close the alley for some time, the property owners said. Representatives from AMF did not return calls requesting comment by the Reporter’s deadline, and management at Sun Villa declined to speak about the situation.

An afternoon of bowling is considered one of the best forms of exercise and social gathering for senior players and many of the bowlers have been playing together for as long as 30 years. Harm has been the president of the league for 20 years.

The nearest bowling alley to Sun Villa is Lucky Strike Lanes in Downtown Bellevue. That facility is smaller and is part of an upscale entertainment center at Lincoln Square. Elsewhere, there are bowling alleys in Kirkland and Tukwila, with a few in South Seattle.

The impending closure of Sun Villa has become a sentimental issue for some league players.

Don Erickson, a retired Boeing employee, said he taught his daughter to bowl at Sun Villa. She took home so many bowling trophies Erickson had to install new shelves all over the house to hold them.

His best personal memory was a three-game stretch where he came one pin shy of topping the 600 mark, a milestone that signifies skill and consistency. But most of all, Erickson remembers the number of people who bowled at Sun Villa over the years, including regular visits by former Seattle Mariner great Jay Buhner.

“We have Pat in our league who is close to 100, all the way down to the little kids who use bumpers to keep the ball on the track,” he said. “Bowling is everybody’s sport, and that’s the way it should be.”