There was sadness on the face of Roy Lynch, a 25-year employee at Sunset Bowl, as the vacant bowling alley was torn down Jan. 20 to make way for the six-story, mixed-use Avalon Ballard apartments.

"It's really depressing," said Lynch, a former graveyard-shift manager. "This was my first place of everything. I asked my first wife to marry me there. It was my home."

Lynch and dozens others, including many former employees, watched as demolition began on the 51-year-old Sunset Bowl at shortly after 1 p.m. on Jan. 20.

Demolition was meant to began Jan. 19, but was delayed. A crew member said it will take three to four days to fully demolish the building.

Hours before Sunset Bowl came down, Lynch and other former employees and family were allowed to take one last visit inside the building.

Lynch said he wanted to take a final look inside and also grab a few remnants, such as tinted windows for his van.

"It's sad," he said. "It's gutted. It's not how I remember it."

Lynch's Jan. 20 tour wasn't his first trip inside the shuttered Sunset Bowl.

A few weeks after it closed, he said he was feeling down and decided to visit the bowling alley. His keys still worked, and he spent a few peaceful hours in the deserted alley, he said.

Lynch said Ballard is turning into little Bellevue now and wonders where young people will hang out with the absence of places like Sunset Bowl, which closed in April 2007.

Now that the building is being torn down, hopefully he can move on with his life, he said.

Dawn Hemminger, president of the East Ballard Community Association, said she was frustrated Sunset Bowl was closed only to sit vacant for two years before being demolished.

"After such a long wait, I'm now relieved that this sorely neglected building is being put to rest and excited that we can now focus on the future," she said.

The East Ballard Community Association is encouraging AvalonBay Communities, the owners of the property on Market Street and 14th Avenue Northwest, to work with the neighborhood to ensure that the Avalon Ballard project benefits the community, Hemminger said.

She said the wants AvalonBay to implement sidewalk and street improvements that fit into the community association's plans to turn 14th Avenue into a park boulevard.

Derek Bottles at AvalonBay said they have no timeline for when construction will begin. The building was torn down because the neighborhood wanted it to be, he said.

Community members interested in getting involved in the East Ballard Community Association's work with AvalonBay can email Dawn Hemminger at eastballard@gmail.com.