Getbig.com: American Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure
Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: funk51 on January 12, 2023, 12:21:23 PM
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https://www.mcall.com/business/retail-watch/mc-biz-whitehall-mall-gym-permanently-closes-20220209-todeldlxwja6zcdxehqfatn35a-story.html Whitehall Mall gym permanently closes, adding to retail center’s vacancies
Members of a Whitehall Township gym must continue their fitness journeys elsewhere in 2022. PA Fitness, at 1951 Whitehall Mall, closed permanently on Jan. 14, according to a sign posted on the gym’s door. “Unfortunately, after months of negotiation, a long-term lease could not be established with the Whitehall Mall,” the posted message continues. Whitehall Mall’s leasing team did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the gym’s departure. By FitnusBrace
According to the sign, PA Fitness Whitehall membership was transferred to two other Lehigh Valley area facilities: SuperSets gyms at 2417 Nazareth Road in Palmer Township and 2450 Schoenersville Road in Hanover Township, Lehigh County. PA Fitness Whitehall, a bi-level facility featuring a variety of cardio and weight training equipment along with group fitness classes, was rebranded from Gold’s Gym in 2020. Regional fitness entrepreneur Kurt Krieger opened the Whitehall location of Gold’s 16 years ago, after converting the mall’s former Plaza Theatre and Leh’s department store — closed since the mid-1990s — into the fitness center.
Gold’s Gym, hit hard by the economic shutdown relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, in May 2020 filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 in an effort to financially restructure the company. A couple of months later, Gold’s Gym Allentown, at 2919 Lehigh St., permanently closed. There are no longer any Gold’s Gym locations in the Lehigh Valley.
“While it was difficult to make the decision to close this location, we were unable to come to agreement with our landlord during this unprecedented situation for small business owners,” Carol Deluliis, Gold’s Gym’s chief operating officer, said in an e-mail to members of the Allentown gym. “We apologize for any inconvenience that this closure may cause and want you to know that we appreciate your support over our time with you the past 12 years in Allentown.”
The news followed the closures of two other area Gold’s Gym locations in recent years: Gold’s Gym Phillipsburg, which closed in September 2019 at the now-shuttered Phillipsburg Mall; and Gold’s Gym Bethlehem, which closed in December 2017 at the Lehigh Shopping Center on Union Boulevard. In a letter to Gold’s Gym Bethlehem members, Deluliis wrote that the Bethlehem gym was unable to negotiate a fair lease agreement with the shopping center and would be forced to close.
An excerpt from an e-mailed message to Gold’s Gym Phillipsburg members reads as follows: “As many have seen through the past 5 years we have tried to do everything we can to be successful inside the mall but the landlord has done just about everything he can to make sure that does not happen. Now with the state of the mall in total disrepair, with it being torn down around us, many people in the community thinking the mall is closed already or even would like to see it torn down really is making it impossible to do any type of business and we can no longer keep operating under these conditions.”
The Whitehall Mall, which opened in 1966 with 52 stores, including Woolworth, Weis Markets and Zollinger’s department store, now has a growing number of vacancies. Two of the largest empty spaces were previously housed by Sears department store, an original mall anchor that closed in 2020; and arts-and-crafts chain Michaels, which moved across Grape Street to the Lehigh Valley Mall in 2020. Additionally, restaurant chain Old Country Buffet closed its Whitehall Mall location in 2020.
Anchor tenants that remain include Bed Bath & Beyond, Buy Buy Baby, Kohl’s and Raymour & Flanigan.
Washington Prime Group, the real estate investment trust that owns Whitehall Mall, in June submitted a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, saying the coronavirus pandemic made the move necessary.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for many companies, including Washington Prime Group, making a Chapter 11 filing necessary to reduce the Company’s outstanding indebtedness,” the trust said in a news release.
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy enables a business to reorganize its finances through a court-approved plan. Such action frees a company from the threat of creditors’ lawsuits while it reorganizes its finances.
The company, which spun off from the nation’s largest mall operator, Simon Property Group, in 2014, has 102 shopping centers, according to documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Washington Prime is based in Columbus, Ohio
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https://www.mcall.com/business/retail-watch/mc-biz-whitehall-mall-gym-permanently-closes-20220209-todeldlxwja6zcdxehqfatn35a-story.html Whitehall Mall gym permanently closes, adding to retail center’s vacancies
Members of a Whitehall Township gym must continue their fitness journeys elsewhere in 2022.
PA Fitness, at 1951 Whitehall Mall, closed permanently on Jan. 14, according to a sign posted on the gym’s door.
PA Fitness gym permanently closed Jan. 14 at the Whitehall Mall.
PA Fitness gym permanently closed Jan. 14 at the Whitehall Mall. (Ryan Kneller/The Morning Call)
“Unfortunately, after months of negotiation, a long-term lease could not be established with the Whitehall Mall,” the posted message continues.
Whitehall Mall’s leasing team did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the gym’s departure.
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By FitnusBrace
According to the sign, PA Fitness Whitehall membership was transferred to two other Lehigh Valley area facilities: SuperSets gyms at 2417 Nazareth Road in Palmer Township and 2450 Schoenersville Road in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.
PA Fitness Whitehall, a bi-level facility featuring a variety of cardio and weight training equipment along with group fitness classes, was rebranded from Gold’s Gym in 2020.
Regional fitness entrepreneur Kurt Krieger opened the Whitehall location of Gold’s 16 years ago, after converting the mall’s former Plaza Theatre and Leh’s department store — closed since the mid-1990s — into the fitness center.
PA Fitness gym permanently closed Jan. 14 at the Whitehall Mall.
PA Fitness gym permanently closed Jan. 14 at the Whitehall Mall. (Ryan Kneller/The Morning Call)
Gold’s Gym, hit hard by the economic shutdown relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, in May 2020 filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 in an effort to financially restructure the company. A couple of months later, Gold’s Gym Allentown, at 2919 Lehigh St., permanently closed.
There are no longer any Gold’s Gym locations in the Lehigh Valley.
“While it was difficult to make the decision to close this location, we were unable to come to agreement with our landlord during this unprecedented situation for small business owners,” Carol Deluliis, Gold’s Gym’s chief operating officer, said in an e-mail to members of the Allentown gym. “We apologize for any inconvenience that this closure may cause and want you to know that we appreciate your support over our time with you the past 12 years in Allentown.”
The news followed the closures of two other area Gold’s Gym locations in recent years: Gold’s Gym Phillipsburg, which closed in September 2019 at the now-shuttered Phillipsburg Mall; and Gold’s Gym Bethlehem, which closed in December 2017 at the Lehigh Shopping Center on Union Boulevard.
In a letter to Gold’s Gym Bethlehem members, Deluliis wrote that the Bethlehem gym was unable to negotiate a fair lease agreement with the shopping center and would be forced to close.
An excerpt from an e-mailed message to Gold’s Gym Phillipsburg members reads as follows:
“As many have seen through the past 5 years we have tried to do everything we can to be successful inside the mall but the landlord has done just about everything he can to make sure that does not happen. Now with the state of the mall in total disrepair, with it being torn down around us, many people in the community thinking the mall is closed already or even would like to see it torn down really is making it impossible to do any type of business and we can no longer keep operating under these conditions.”
The Whitehall Mall, which opened in 1966 with 52 stores, including Woolworth, Weis Markets and Zollinger’s department store, now has a growing number of vacancies.
Two of the largest empty spaces were previously housed by Sears department store, an original mall anchor that closed in 2020; and arts-and-crafts chain Michaels, which moved across Grape Street to the Lehigh Valley Mall in 2020. Additionally, restaurant chain Old Country Buffet closed its Whitehall Mall location in 2020.
Anchor tenants that remain include Bed Bath & Beyond, Buy Buy Baby, Kohl’s and Raymour & Flanigan.
Washington Prime Group, the real estate investment trust that owns Whitehall Mall, in June submitted a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, saying the coronavirus pandemic made the move necessary.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for many companies, including Washington Prime Group, making a Chapter 11 filing necessary to reduce the Company’s outstanding indebtedness,” the trust said in a news release.
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy enables a business to reorganize its finances through a court-approved plan. Such action frees a company from the threat of creditors’ lawsuits while it reorganizes its finances.
The company, which spun off from the nation’s largest mall operator, Simon Property Group, in 2014, has 102 shopping centers, according to documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Washington Prime is based in Columbus, Ohio
Brian, if you’re reading this thread, there’s still hope!