24 Hour Fitness Files For Bankruptcy, Closing Lakewood Gym
LAKEWOOD, WA — 24 Hour Fitness has filed for bankruptcy and will be closing 100 gyms across America.
Among the locations being closed is the Lakewood Mall gym near Towne Center.
24 Hour Fitness managers say the move is an unfortunate result of the long-term losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“If it were not for COVID-19 and its devastating effects, we would not be filing for Chapter 11,” CEO Tony Ueber said in a statement. “We expect to have substantial financing with a path to restructuring our balance sheet and operations to ensure a resilient future.”
Despite the forced closures, 24 Hour Fitness said Monday in its Chapter 11 filings that it has secured $250 million in funding to support the reopening of its other locations by the end of June. All of 24 Hour Fitness' gyms had had been closed for months because of coronavirus-related shutdowns.
24 Hour Fitness has 11 locations in Washington state that will remain open, but none are in the Lakewood area. The closest remaining gym would be in Tacoma.
Earlier Gold's Gym, another medium-sized nationwide fitness chain, also filed for bankruptcy due to losses incurred during the pandemic.
This article originally appeared on the Lakewood-JBLM Patch
