Gator Lanes sold, to become Fort Myers Dinner Theatre 

Gator Lanes, a south Fort Myers bowling alley, bar and entertainment center for nearly 50 years, was sold and will become known as Fort Myers Dinner Theatre. 

Michelle and Jeremy Kuntze paid $3.1 million for the bowling alley inside the 28,000-square-foot building at 1901 Crystal Drive in south Fort Myers, closing on the deal July 17. Within 48 hours, they staged their first youth production there. James and the Giant Peach was performed inside the building’s northern addition, which was built by the previous owner. That space, formerly Ter-Tini’s restaurant, is being converted into a 150-seat youth theater. 

Summer camps are already underway there, and after-school programs will begin when school resumes. 

The first four bowling lanes were removed by the previous owner. That space, along with lanes five through 10, will become a second theater with 200 seats and about 5,500 square feet. 

Bowling lanes 11 through 25 will remain unless future theater demand prompts the husband-and-wife team to remove them, as well. The Kuntzes plan to have the on-site kitchen ready to serve by September and are still developing the menu. 

The owners of Fort Myers Theatre at 16120 San Carlos Blvd., Suite 5, in south Fort Myers have two and a half years remaining on the lease for their 4,400-square-foot space, which likely will become storage. 

The Kuntzes now have more than six times the space of their original location. 

“I never expected to buy a bowling alley, we’ll put it that way,” said Michelle Kuntze, who started her first theater company from home at 15 while attending Cypress Lake High School after moving from Hackettstown, New Jersey. 

After graduating from the University of Central Florida, she returned to Lee County, where she started what she believes was the area’s first after-school theater camp. She taught at Challenger Middle School and Canterbury School before focusing on Fort Myers Theatre full time. 

“Over the next couple of years, we really want to change this into a family-friendly complex, where kids can come bowl, see a play and be a part of a show,” Michelle Kuntze said. “We’re also going to do a mystery dinner theater.” 

The sale marks the end of an almost five-decade era for Kevin Walsh, who worked as a bartender at Gator Lanes as a young adult before eventually taking ownership of the property and business. His father and other investors opened the bowling alley. 

“I was 15 when we started building it,” Walsh said. “April 10, 1978, we opened it up. 

“My dad was one of the 10 owners. The husbands and wives. There were 20 people. I bartended and then I took over the bar when I was about 22. He gave me $5 an hour, plus percentages. It was all based off percentages. I got 24% of the extra dollars. That went on for five or six years. I bought them out more or less. I made my commissions.” 

Gator Lanes nearly sold twice before, Walsh said, but both deals fell through. 

“In 1980, the whole world collapsed,” Walsh said, referring to a six-month economic recession that derailed the first sale. The Great Recession ended the prospects of a second sale. 

“I bought it in 1983,” Walsh said. “I tried to get out in ’08. We were ready to go. And then the whole world fell apart again. After 48 years, it’s bittersweet.” 

Jeremy Kuntze said the timing and location made the purchase a natural fit. 

“We’ve been looking, and it’s been on the market,” he said. “It was a combination of right time, right place. The bones of what we need to do to run a theater are already there.” 

Michelle Kuntze has been involved in theater in the area for the past 20 years, and she said it feels good to finally own a building. Remodeling already has begun. 

“I have to give it all to God,” she said. “We’ve been planning this for years. Let’s just do it. It’s just a great moment.”