Over the last several months, Michael Olander Jr.’s roundtable has been discussing the emergence of small group training and specialty group classes. One of the popular classes on his list was Pure Barre.
Olander Jr., the founder of O2 Fitness, the largest privately-operated fitness club in North Carolina, was made aware of a club not far from the club’s Elliott Rd. location in Chapel Hill, N.C. The club, “Women’s Only Workout,” was a women’s-only facility that featured many specialty classes, such as yoga, Pilates and Pure Barre.
According to an article by the Chapel Hill News, Olander Jr. purchased, and then closed, the women’s-only facility. However, when interviewed by Club Solutions, Olander Jr. explained that the article had gotten the story wrong.
“The operating owner still owed money to the original owner, but had no interest in continuing to operate the facility,” explained Olander Jr. “We had been in the market to bring Pure Barre to our club and this was an opportunity.”
The original owner of Women’s Only Workout offered to sell the club to O2 Fitness if they could close the deal within 48 hours. The deal was accomplished, but O2 Fitness doesn’t position itself as a possible women’s-only facility. Therefore, O2 Fitness transferred all the memberships, classes and even brought a lot of the useful equipment to its Elliot Rd. location. Additionally, Olander Jr.’s plan has been to expand the Elliot Rd. location to provide a better mind/body facility for yoga, Pilates and Pure Barre.
“We took all assets in the company and paid off the lease,” explained Olander Jr. “We relocated all of the members so they would have a place to work out, as opposed to them just losing a place to exercise. They can get all the classes they had previously, and a full gym.”
Women’s Only Workout, according to Olander Jr., only had three classes it provided its members. However, it was a women’s-only facility, and the Chapel Hill News article states that several of the members were annoyed that they would lose that privacy.
Olander Jr. said that O2 Fitness is a better opportunity for those members. “We want to let members know that we are the largest privately-held fitness club in the state,” he said. “We are here, and here to stay. We are going to stick around.”
At least if the members are upset about a fitness club closing, they should enjoy Olander Jr.’s confidence that O2 Fitness won’t be closing any of its clubs for quite a while.
By Tyler Montgomery
