24-Hour Fitness moves to new space

Members of 24-Hour Fitness clubs normally don’t need to be told to get moving.

But exercisers at the chain’s Spokane Valley gym had to do just that last weekend.

The Valley club was forced to move last week after losing its lease in another building, at 14210 E. Sprague Ave., in late November. The club’s 5,800 members now are working out in a converted supermarket near Gillis Road and Sprague.

Club members “have been very receptive, all things considered,” said regional operations manager D. Fromviller. Oz Fitness bought the Spokane area 24-Hour Fitness clubs in July. The Valley club, which formerly operated as Sta-Fit, had been in the 58,000-square-foot building since the early 1990s, Fromviller said.

Now, a gym called the Spokane Valley Sports Club is expected to open in the old location within days, said Griffin Garske, one of the new club’s three managers.

The Los Angeles-based owners of the building chose to operate their own club rather than seeking another lessee, he said. Spokane County lists Sprague Partnership as the owner of the building, but neither Garske nor Bob Stoyko, another manager of the Spokane Valley Sports Club, would verify the name of the new gym’s owner.

24-Hour Fitness’ stay in the former Rosauers Supermarket Inc. store is temporary. Oz Fitness plans to build a new structure at the northwest corner of Sprague and Progress Road by the end of summer, Fromviller said. That facility will resemble the chain’s north Spokane club, she said.

Although the temporary location feels spacious because of its high ceilings, it has 7,000 fewer square feet than the old place. Compared with its former building, it’s missing tennis and racquetball courts, a swimming pool and several showers.On Monday, six exercisers who normally do water aerobics instead took a class called “Fish out of Water.” The women stretched in folding chairs and did pushups against a wall.

“My body is saying it needs water,” member Patty Muncy bemoaned.

The women briefly discussed plans to carpool to 24-Hour Fitness’ South Hill club, which has a pool.

Employees in the club’s child-care room were adjusting to their new, larger surroundings.

“There’s lots of frolicking room,” Kids Club attendant Ashlee Fleisher said, as 2-year-old Trevor Crow wheeled two trucks around the floor.Fromviller said Oz Fitness had a verbal agreement with its former landlord to extend its lease until its new club was built. She said, “He decided not to renew,” and notified the club around Thanksgiving.

Stoyko said the owners simply wanted a longer commitment from its renter.

“The owners were wanting a long-term lease, and they were looking for a short-term lease,” he said.

24-Hour Fitness’ future location will have about 45,000 square feet of floor space, Fromviller said. It will get some of its old amenities back, such as the pool and the racquetball courts. But members will have to do without tennis courts, which took a lot of space and weren’t often used, she said.

Still, members said they’re looking forward to a new, permanent place.

“People don’t mind being inconvenienced when they know they’re going to get something better,” member Donna Russell said.