Synergy Fitness Files for Bankruptcy

NEW YORK -- Subway construction in New York is the main reason Synergy Fitness Club is filing for bankruptcy, the club’s manager says.

The construction on Second Avenue in Manhattan began three years ago and has deterred foot traffic. Suzanne Park, the manager of the Synergy Fitness club on that street, told Crain’s New York Business that she estimates 20 percent of the businesses around the club have closed. Completion of the first 1.7 miles of the project is not scheduled until 2016, the newspaper reports.

Synergy Fitness has four other locations in Manhattan and one each in Astoria, NY; Staten Island, NY; and Jersey City, NJ. The bankruptcy filing affects only the Second Avenue club, the newspaper reports.

On its most recent balance sheet, from December 2008, Synergy Fitness cited assets of more than $10,500 and liabilities of more than $118,000, according to the newspaper. The company owes $120,000 in rent to the Second Avenue club’s landlord.

Park told the newspaper that the club is currently operating and will not shut down, but Crain’s reported that the filing said seizure of the property is imminent.

Synergy was formerly co-owned by Christian Tarantino, who was arrested in 2008 in connection with three murders dating back to 1994.