LA Fitness, Irvine, CA, which acquired four Buffalo (NY) Athletic Clubs and two Rochester (NY) Athletic Clubs last December, announced plans today to relocate members of both Rochester Athletic Clubs and two of the four Buffalo Athletic Clubs to nearby LA Fitness clubs.
The official news from Fitness & Sports Clubs LLC (which does business as LA Fitness) to Club Industry confirms recent media reports in Buffalo and Rochester that LA Fitness is closing four clubs in those areas.
According to LA Fitness, effective May 31, the Rochester Athletic Club on Goodway Drive will relocate to LA Fitness Henrietta—about 6 minutes away—and the Buffalo Athletic Club in Williamsville will relocate to LA Fitness Clarence—about one minute away.
Effective June 7, the Rochester Athletic Club on Greece Ridge Drive will relocate to LA Fitness Greece, which is less than 5 minutes away. Also, the members of the Buffalo Athletic Club in Amherst on Niagara Falls Blvd. will be relocated to the new LA Fitness Amherst club about 3 minutes away. That new LA Fitness club is under construction and is scheduled to open in mid-July, the company said.
LA Fitness added that all active memberships that Fitness & Sports Clubs LLC purchased from Buffalo Athletic Club and Rochester Athletic Club will continue to be honored under the terms of their current agreements. Any member who had single-club access to any relocated club will now have access to all upstate New York LA Fitness clubs, with the exception of LA Fitness' signature clubs.
The Buffalo News reported last Saturday that members of the Buffalo Athletic Club in Williamsville (in Eastern Hills Mall) were informed of the closing by signs on the front door and group fitness doors. The club will close at 2 p.m. on May 31 and relocate to the nearby LA Fitness in Walmart Plaza in Clarence, the newspaper reported. (The Amherst Buffalo Athletic Club is located in Boulevard Mall.)
Scott Scanlon of The Buffalo News reported the closings of the Buffalo Athletic Clubs will not come as a surprise to most members. He wrote:
Those who've continued to visit former Eastern Hills and Boulevard Mall BACs have seen flagging attendance in favor of the newer LA Fitness branches that opened last year in Clarence, North Buffalo and Niagara Falls. While those clubs bustle, rarely are there times when fitness equipment is unavailable to members.
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported that members at the Rochester Athletic Clubs on Goodway Drive and in the Mall at Greece Ridge were notified of the closings on Monday by signs posted at both clubs. From the Democrat and Chronicle:
There was no clear indication how many LA Fitness employees would lose their jobs as a result of the closing. Most of the trainers at both locations have moved to other gyms but other employees, including front-desk workers, cleaners and others, remained.
All of the clubs that are closing are coed. The Buffalo Athletic Club for women and Rochester Athletic Club for women locations, as well as the CrossFit Buffalo Athletic Club Extreme Training facility, were not included in the LA Fitness acquisition.
Last month, LA Fitness announced it was closing four of the 10 Vision Quest Sport and Fitness clubs that it acquired last December in the Seattle area.