AUBURN – The city could sell a 40-foot strip along a planned downtown parking lot to buoy retail development at the former Auburn Lanes bowling alley.

Development Director Roland Miller said local developer Jim Lindvall is interested in bringing a retail development to the site at Main and Academy streets. The building has been vacant since August 2005, when the candlepin bowling alley closed its doors.

“We all want to see that building back in the public’s use,” Miller said. “We want it to be back and productive and we’re willing to work with the developers to make it happen. It’s an example of the city doing a direct action to help a small developer.”

Auburn Lanes opened in the 1960s at the height of an East Coast candlepin bowling craze. As interest in the game dwindled, candlepin alleys closed. The Auburn bowling alley closed its doors a few days before losing its lease, and the owners sold off much of the alley’s equipment.

The back of the structure is built right up to the building’s property line, which doesn’t meet city zoning ordinances. It also doesn’t leave any room for delivery trucks or other traffic.

Developers asked the city if it was willing to part with a 40- by 170-foot strip behind the building. The city bought that land in 2006 to build a new downtown parking lot.

“That additional land would let them have better access and use the site, and it shouldn’t impact our plans for our parking lot,” Miller said. “The City Council said that had to be one of the main criteria. It can’t change what we plan to do.”

Miller said he had prepared an offer for the developer.