Overland Park officially considers the old Incred-A-Bowl building to be “dangerous or unsafe.” The question now is what happens next.

On Monday, after several weeks of discussion, the Overland Park City Council voted 11-0 to approve a resolution making the “dangerous or unsafe” declaration.

The vote starts a clock for the building’s property owner to either finish repairing the structure or demolish the building, which has become an eyesore along a busy commercial stretch of 151st Street in southern Overland Park.

If the owner has not completed the necessary work by Jan. 16, 2026, the city will raze the building and recoup the cost through an invoice or extra property tax assessments, the resolution says.

Although neighbors and city officials have long considered the old bowling alley at 8500 W. 151st St. to be an issue, the discovery of unapproved structural modifications to the building this summer, which code officials warned could lead to a partial collapse of the building, gave more urgency to the situation.

“There’s a building that’s been deemed unsafe, and we would like it to be safe,” Councilmember Sam Passer said. “We want our residents to be safe, we want the occupant to be safe, we want anyone walking in to be safe.”

Mayor Curt Skoog did not cast a vote on the resolution, but he said he felt it might be “a step farther than we need to go.”

Before considering the resolution, the city council convened a 15-minute closed-door executive session with legal staff to discuss the matter.

Councilmember Logan Heley was absent from the meeting.

Looking back on the Incred-A-Bowl building

Incred-A-Bowl closed about a decade ago, and NMS LLC, owned by Lenexa surgeon Paramjeet Sabharwal, eventually acquired the building.

Sabharwal has floated plans to redevelop the building and to develop other nearby property, though so far, none of those plans have panned out. At the same time, neighbors have complained as the structure and its surrounding area have deteriorated.

The current plan for the site is to turn the 65,000-square-foot former bowling alley into an event space with attached dining and retail options. Beastified, a gym and supplement store, occupies part of the building currently.

Over the years, the city has issued a number of code violations (including some that are ongoing). Additionally, Sabharwal has been delinquent on property taxes in the past, and according to Johnson County land records, currently owes more than $63,000 in property taxes for 2024.

All of those problems culminated over the summer, when the city council scheduled a hearing, beginning the process of compelling the owner to repair or demolish the building after code officials discovered structural modifications that had been completed without proper oversight, which they said had created a dangerous situation.

Jim Brown, Overland Park’s codes administrator, said previously that the primary concern is the risk of a partial roof collapse, posing a risk to construction crews or first responders if they needed to enter the building.

“Quite frankly, I’m surprised it didn’t fall down on them while they were doing [the work],” Brown said this week.

Since the discovery of the unpermitted work in June and the initial city council discussions that followed, the city has granted permits for the repairs, and some of the required work has begun, though it is not yet completed.

Unpermitted work has been discovered at the property in the past, but this is the first time city staff have documented work they believe rendered the building unsafe.

Next steps for Incred-A-Bowl:

• Now, the property owner has until Jan. 16 to repair or raze the building.
• If that deadline passes, the city will complete the work and bill the property owner.
• Scott Hunter, an attorney representing the property owner, said the repairs in question are on track to be completed in November.
• He also said the contractors for the project expect to complete the full Incred-A-Bowl redevelopment early next year, and the city has issued permits for that work separate from the repair permits.

Looking back: Code violations at Overland Park Incred-A-Bowl raise fresh concerns about long-troubled site