The latest sign of financial desperation
at Seattle Executive Fitness (SEF), is that the company has reduced the
size of its third floor workout out area by nearly two thirds! Most gym members have
developed the impression this is a sign that Seattle Executive
Fitness may be taking its last desperate gasps before complete financial collapse. This is the third time Seattle Executive Fitness has given
floor space back to its landlord at 509 Olive Way in a series of
desperate attempts to save on fixed costs such as space rental.
The
first wave of space reductions came about a year ago when Seattle
Executive Fitness reduced the size of its stretching floor by half. At
the same time SEF made part of what was the circuit training area a
stretching floor and crammed the circuit training equipment that was
there into what was left of the stretching room. The second wave of
space reductions, an even more obvious attempt to cut costs, when
removal of the formal street level entrance lobby on the first floor. The Seattle Executive Fitness gym at 509
Olive Way no longer has its own separate entrance. Instead, the gym
requires members to enter through the main lobby of the building, past a
forlorn looking reception desk.
The
bottom line is that two thirds of the third floor workout area is now gone!
The floor space that Seattle Executive Fitness has given back to its
landlord used to include:
- its large free weight workout area
- its hammer strength workout area
- its selectorized weight machine circuit training area
- its previous stretching and calisthenics floor
- its large kickboxing studio at the southwest corner of the third floor
What
remains is a cramped, disorganized, shambles that has three sections: a
small stretching/toning floor area; a cramped and claustrophic cardio
training area, part of which has a few plate selectorized circuit
training machines, but not enough to be useful; and a new smaller free
weights room which was previously the Cybex treadmill room with HDTVs. Please check back soon for more details about everything that is happening, and what it likely means for SEF members and the what seems like the impending demise of this once palatable gym that only needed minor improvements to be a first class facility. It is just sad, sad, sad, that this gym's management has never listened to its customers, and is instead going in the opposite direction of what the majority of the gym's customers have wanted for years. Unfortunately, this sad turn of events doesn't come as too much of a surprise really, since the gym's owner, Merle Gregg, has run every gym he has managed over the years into the ground, and into one form of ruination or another.
Here's a photo of the wall blocking off what was once two thirds or more of the third floor workout facility at the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness location.
