New Signature Club Status to give you and your wallet a good workout
UPDATE: Monday, July 12 — This location is now operating as LA Fitness Again. Members of this LA Fitness location before the remodel are invited to return (read story here).
UPDATE (per comments below): Friday, February 26 — This location is now open as Esporta, an affiliate of LA Fitness. Members of this LA Fitness location before the remodel are invited to return.
In June 2010, the LA Fitness at 5th and Spring Streets is reopening with rejuvenation. Within a short 5-month window, LA Fitness will have undergone a complete remodel literally going from string bean to bodybuilder.
Why the renovation? Imagine you’re at your local LA Fitness sculpting that perfect summer BOD and you realize your water bottle is still in your car. Rushing back to the parking deck, you see that your car was doing some heavy lifting without a spotter…yikes! You along with 39 others have discovered that your car is covered in ruble from a collapsed parking deck.
In what will be the one year anniversary of its temporary closure to its reopening, the Midtown LA Fitness was without parking in June of 2009 when their parking deck collapsed. Finally, with the parking deck under reconstruction, members can expect quite a few upscale changes, though there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Members to the Midtown LA Fitness were paying a monthly membership fee of 24.00 – 40.00 USD depending on the services they were enrolled into. The new membership fee for the same location because of the upgrades will start at a minimum of 50.00 USD. What does that mean for current members? It means an increase to your monthly bill. Here’s what you’ll get:
- Signature Club Status
- Towel service
- Exercise machines equipped with LCD screens
- Renovated locker room
If status is your thing, and the signature club options increase your desire to workout, then your good to go! Your monthly bill will increase to offset the new status. Not interested in paying additional funds? Good luck traveling to the Atlantic Station LA Fitness location where parking is always available (though it comes at a price).
24 Responses
So I wonder if us normal “non-signature” LA Fitness customers will be allowed to use this one?
jonathan — you would only be allowed to use this location if your membership level was signature club status. that would involve the increase in your monthly membership fees if you are not.
— cjs
Are you serious?
Parking was never free at this location, it was validated but with a 2 1/2 hr limit. The parking deck was a maze during business hours, you had to circle around many times and be teased by all the empty reserved spots.
Atlantic Station location does not validate parking but first two hours are free anyways.
I was orphaned by this location when they shut down last year and I have to say it turned out for the best. I still wanted a gym in walking distance and ended up joining HFC in the AT&T building on W. Peachtree.
HFC is never crowded and always clean. There’s towel service and the locker rooms are stocked with soap, shampoo, etc, all for less than I was paying at LA Fitness.
I also joined HFC. LA Fitness could have notified people that they were ‘temporarily’ closing the location to renovate, but then they wouldn’t have been able to charge those existing customers the new membership rate. I like my new gym…I have no intention of going back to LA finess…
I just got a sales flyer in the mail about this club on Feb 22, 2010. Apparently its going to be called “Esporta.” There is absolutely no mention of any affiliation to LA Fitness on the flyer. Nor “Signature Club” level. I wonder if they changed concepts since this article was written back in Jan – or are they just distancing themselves from the LA Fitness “brand”? (researching Esporta online – I found that it is a pretty big chain in the UK and Ireland).
mark– according to an la fitness representative, the club is reopening as esporta. having said that, this is an affiliate of la fitness and is considered a signature club. further, members of the original la fitness at that location will be invited to extend their membership at esporta. new members will be signing up for esporta and will have no direct affiliation with la fitness.
hope that makes sense.
the la fitness representative also said that esporta will be opening in march rather than june; cant see how that is possible…
thanks for your comment mark!
–cjs
Caleb: Thanks for the clarification. I drove by the club yesterday and there’s a huge banner hanging outside saying “NOW OPEN” so I guess they beat their March opening! As a former user of the LA Fitness at that location – I’ll go in today and see what they offer. The location is really great for me – much closer than Atlantic Sta or Ansley. Just hoping its not double the price of what I am currently paying. That seems like a lot to pay for a towel .
On another note: the parking deck that collapsed is back open and filled with cars once again. As a structural engineer, it makes me nervous to park in a deck that failed once – but that is another story!
This is total you-know-what. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay a perry more. They displaced us, I now have to add another 20-30 minutes in the morning because I have to deal with Atlantic Station. A lot of people are unhappy with this and have talked about taking action. I don’t blame them at all.
Um, that would be “penny.” I’ve been in there and okay, there are TV’s on the screens and a few fake plants, but we would have been happy if they’d wheeled the same old stuff back in there and not tried to take more of our money for something we had no control over to begin with.
Went there this morning. Looks really nice. The individual TV’s are cool. Only have like 13 channels, but still a nice addition. You can actually hook your Nike+ ipod to the treadmill, too. The cyber lockers are cool as well.
Went in today as well – great equipment and setup. And I finally feel like they’ve made up for shutting down the old site with no notice, since people who initially joined that location have been “grandfathered” in.
I went there this morning. Thank Good I had a great workout. I was hoping that they would reopen. YAY!
Long time LA Fitness member who has always used the club closest to my current work location. Have used Perimeter, Windward, Satellite Blvd, Cobb Pkwy and now Spring and Atlantic Station. Found out this morning that the old Spring St location had re-opened under a new name. Stopped by there on my way to work to see if I was elgible to work out there. Employee said it depends. Turns out I could but now you have me worried that they are going charge me a different rate on my monthly fee.
huskerfrank — according to lisa, a representative from esporta (spring street location), these are the means for using the club:
1. if you are a multi-club member you have access at no additional charge.
2. if you are a signature premier member you have access at no addiotnal charge.
if your membership does not meet one of the two listed above, you can upgrade to use esporta and the cost of the upgrade depends on your current membership status.
hope this clears the air!
— cjs
Esporta was able to open so quickly because most of the existing structure was unchanged, including the bathroom and shower areas, which were not even re-tiled. The wet areas look cheap — exactly the same as the LA Fitness that needed an overhaul when it closed — but the rest of the finishes throughout the club are very nice. All of the cardio and weight equipment in the gym is top-shelf.
Since it’s essentially an LA Fitness partially done up in Neiman Marcus clothing, I’m skeptical about its ability to stay clean over time. Most LA Fitness clubs look like crap after a couple of years because the company is so notoriously cheap. LA Fitness is also well known for under-paying its employees — from managers to group fitness instructors to custodial staff — which could impact the quality of service at Esporta.
If you get grandfathered in as a former Midtown member at LA Fitness rates, it’s well worth it. But I’d hesitate to pay a premium because as soon as the sheen wears off, you’re going to get LA Fitness (i.e., budget) quality.
HFC in the AT&T building on W. Peachtree announced today they are closing on 5/14/2010 due to lack of interest from AT&T.
They recommend using Esporta or Plaza Exec Health Club at 600 Peachtree Street in the BoA Plaza – looks like a dive from the website.
http://www.theplaza-healthclub.com/
can’t we just get an Equinox in Midtown already?
http://www.equinox.com/
Wow, HFC is closing?! That’s kind of ironic considering the comments above from people who started working out there when LA Fitness Spring St closed.
Finding a gym that will stay open is getting to be a challenge around here.
I hope Esporta lasts. I was grandfathered in and that’s the only way I would go there. IMO, not worth any premium. Still creeps me out parking in that deck knowing the whole thing could come crashing down at any moment.
I am a longtime LA Fitness customer and I agree with Tom’s comments about the company being so cheap. The statement that they underpay their staff makes sense. Their bathrooms looked so nasty one time — I called the health department on them. If you live/work outside the perimeter and want to belong to a true “Neiman Marcus”-type gym, try Lifetime Fitness. It’s not perfect by everyone’s standards or super cheap, but you get a great experience when you’re there.
Visited gym but its a same accept better athestics. Its Ghetto fab already and the music is non stop “man beats”. If you want a mainstream crowd play some decent music thats not from Queer as Folk.
I think Esporta’s days may already be numbered. Lots of rumors flying around the members stating that Esporta is going back to just “plain” LA Fitness. There’s a lot of supporting evidence:
Towel service: pretty much gone on the floor. You have to get your towels from the front desk now, instead of bins around the club. They say “the dryer broke” but it’s been several weeks and still no change.
Esporta merchandise being dumped: All Esporta-marked T-Shirts and Sweatshirts etc on 50% off sale.
Mopping up the Spin classroom gone: for the first couple of months of operation, a crew would come in and clean up the Spin bikes and mop the floor. Discontinued.
Website: esportausa.com simply redirects back to lafitness.com
I don’t think they could make the numbers work with the premium prices. The club just wasn’t THAT special to warrant paying more than standard rates.
Funny, I was just researching LA Fitness midtown and yours was the top ranked post (on my Google search)! Great job! Hope to see you at the CMC in the Fall.
SBC
After checking out all of my Midtown options I finally picked Colony Square Athletic Club.
Parking is also free for 2 hours I always make it work. It’s not a chain and its kind of a cool quirky neighboorhood club that has survived all of the big chains. Open 24 hours and I like that. look they are not perfect but there Personal Training has me excited to work out. I can walk there from my 12th street condo.