The Current Seattle Executive Fitness Entrance ...

When Merle Gregg took over the gym at 511 Olive Way from its previous owner, Bob Padgett, when its brand was AllStar Fitness, the gym had its own separate entrance from the medical/dental building entrance at 509 Olive Way, in downtown Seattle, WA. It was apparent at the time that Bob Padgett and his five AllStar Fitness locations were in serious financial trouble. Bob Padgett sold the two downtown Seattle locations to Merle Gregg and Sam Adams who at that time together owned Epicenter Fitness. Bob Padgett later sold his Olympia, WA, and Portland, OR AllStar Fitness locations, leaving just his West Seattle location, which recently went bankrupt. 

Makeshift plastic taped  over Allstar Fitness signage

Meanwhile, Sam Adams and Merle Gregg's business relationship deteriorated and Merle Gregg apparently bought out the interest the Adams brothers had in the business. Then he rebranded and reincorporated the business as Seattle Executive Fitness in the fall of 2011. Members of the gym had great hopes that Merle Gregg would reinvent his business practices too, develop his company into a gym that Seattleites could enjoy. It wasn't long during late 2011 though, before it became apparent that Merle Gregg wasn't going to do much except try to change his stripes, but he was still the same cheapskate business predator.

As the many articles on this site describe and illustrate in detail, one after another, every indicator, small and large, demonstrated that the condition of the gyms owned by Merle Gregg wasn't going to get better, it was going to get worse. One example of this was the failure of Seattle Executive Finess management failed for a long time to change the signage and corporate image over from AllStar Fitness at all. In fact, to this day, the AllStar Fitness sign high above the street along Fifth Avenue remains. During the interim, instead of investing in appropriate, professional signage, Merle Gregg, left a temporary plastic sign over the AllStar Fitness signage, until finally, the financially troubled business capitulated the ground floor retail space back to the landlord of the Olive Way building. That space is now being transformed into a Weight Watcher's franchise. 

The consequence is that Seattle Executive Fitness no longer has a street level presence or external signage. Anyone passing pay in a car or a bus probably wouldn't ever notice that the business was there. People who here about it by some other means, might have trouble finding it even while standing outside the building near its entrance. Taken together with all the signs and symptoms of trouble at Seattle Executive Fitness, the reduce entrance way presence does not seem like a very good indicator of the fitness of this fitness business. 

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