Harman Fitness, Chatsworth, California, has signed a lease to acquire and renovate the former Thousand Oaks Bay Club facility in Thousand Oaks, California.
The Bay Club Company, San Francisco, acquired the 2400 Willow Lane club in 2015, which was formerly home to a Spectrum Athletic Clubs business. Since then, Bay Club executives decided the facility did "not match the country club and sports resort model that Bay Club is now pursuing, and as a result, it agreed to turn over ownership to a new operator," according to a report by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.
Harman Fitness in August 2017 acquired the site on a 10-year lease with two five-year options, according to The Acorn. A $1.5 million renovation project is already underway to update the site's equipment, workout areas and parking garage. About 90 of Bay Club’s 119 employees will be retained, according to The Acorn, although an estimated 500 to 600 people canceled their memberships before the sale was completed in August.
An opening date for the yet-to-be-named club has not been announced.
A Bay Club spokeswoman confirmed the club's change in ownership but as of Oct. 24 had not provided Club Industry with further insight into the company's current business strategy.
"This is a really strong fitness product, and we believe we can upgrade the hospitality amenities, the sports amenities and the family-oriented content to diversify the product and make it more well-rounded and very consistent with what we have done both in San Diego and northern California," Bay Club CEO Matthew Stevens told Club Industry in April 2015 after the company had acquired the facility, along with 10 others, from Spectrum Athletic Clubs.
During the last two years, the club's operators had promised members an outdoor swimming pool and golf course that never came to fruition, according to The Acorn. A Bay Club employee suggested issues in obtaining permits meant the operators "were not able to convert the club into what we hoped we could."
The Bay Club ranked No. 8 on Club Industry's Top 100 Health Clubs of 2017 with $228.75 million in 2016 revenue, a 4.1 percent increase year-over-year.
Harman Fitness currently owns and operates 20 health clubs—primarily Crunch Fitness and UFC Gym clubs—in the United States and abroad.