The 24 Hour Fitness gym chain has announced it won’t reopen 18 Southern California locations despite the state’s loosening of limitations on workout facilities.
The chain’s webpage says: “24 Hour Fitness has made the difficult decision to close the following locations. Members, we invite you to work out at any reopened location throughout 2020.”
California’s Stage 3 reopening plan, in effect as of Friday, June 12, allows gyms, bars, communal swimming pools, movie theaters and hotels and museums to reopen as long as guidelines for social distancing and sanitation are followed,
The closed gyms, as listed on the chains’ website:
• Downtown LA-6th Street, 505 S. Flower Street in Los Angeles
• Glendale, 240 North Brand Blvd in Glendale
• Hawaiian Gardens Super Sport, 12120 Carson Street in Hawaiian Gardens
• Montclair Active, 9750 Central Avenue in Montclair
• Moreno Valley Fit Lite, 23750 Alessandro Blvd in Moreno Valley
• Palmdale West, 1335 Rancho Vista Blvd in Palmdale
• Pasadena, 465 North Halstead Street in Pasadena
• Simi Valley-Tapo Active Dry, 2350 Tapo Street in Simi Valley
• South Hills Plaza Active, 1422 Azusa Avenue in West Covina
• The Promenade Super Sport, 1417 Second Street in Santa Monica
• Victorville, 16200 Bear Valley Road in Victorville
• Anaheim Garden Walk, 400 W. Disney Way, Suite 94 in Anaheim
• Costa Mesa, 1600 Adams Avenue in Costa Mesa
• Fountain Valley, 18305 Brookhurst Street in Fountain Valley
• Irvine Spectrum Sport, 517 Spectrum Center Drive in Irvine
• Laguna Hills, 25252 McIntyre Street, Suite A in Laguna Hills
• Lakeshore Towers Ultra Sport, 18007 Von Karman Avenue in Irvine
• Westminster Active, 6731 Westminster Blvd. in Westminster
The company has been struggling even before the pandemic, losing customers to gyms that were cheaper or fancier.
Bloomberg News reported in May that the chain’s parent company, 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc., was in talks with investors over the terms of a loan that would keep the company operating through a bankruptcy court restructuring. Even before the pandemic, the operator of more than 400 gyms before the closings, had $1.3 billion of debt stemming from a leveraged buyout by AEA Investors and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in 2014.