Cortez Lanes was built, as a freestanding structure, on a pad east of the mall. The facility, which featured 24 bowling lanes, a restaurant, bowling supply store and babysitting service, opened in July 1959. It would be a CORTEZ PLAZA tenant for over 28 years.

Postcard from the Manatee County Historical Records Library

A full color aerial of CORTEZ PLAZA, taken in the early 1960s. The structure in the lower left opened, in February 1960, as an Adventurers Cafeteria. By the late '60s, it had been rebranded as a William Tally House Coffee Shop.
Photo from the Russell News Agency / Bob Ford