24 Hour Fitness will close its last gym and fitness center in Colorado Springs early next year, apparently ending its presence in town after more than a quarter century.
The California-based fitness chain will shutter its facility at the Broadmoor Towne Center, 1892 Southgate Road on the Springs’ south side, effective Feb. 28, according to a sign posted in the window of the location.
Neither the chain’s corporate office nor a third-party media representative responded to phone calls and emails from The Gazette seeking more information about the closing.
It’s unknown whether 24 Hour Fitness might consider opening another location in Colorado Springs. It’s also unknown how many employees work at the Broadmoor Towne Center location or their status.
Members who called 24 Hour Fitness at the Broadmoor Towne Center were being told they’d receive prorated refunds for the unused portion of annual memberships purchased in advance. They also could transfer their memberships to a 24 Hour Fitness in Castle Rock.
24 Hour Fitness was founded in 1983 and has nearly 300 locations in 11 states, according to a recent company news release. Strength and cardio equipment, free weights, studio and cycle classes and personal training are among the offerings at its gyms, the release said.
The shutdown of the Broadmoor Towne Center location will follow the chain’s closure in May 2023 of its gym at 3650 Austin Bluffs Parkway in the Marketplace at Austin Bluffs shopping center. That location, which opened in 1998, was the first 24 Hour Fitness in Colorado Springs, Gazette archives show.
In June 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, 24 Hour Fitness filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed more than 130 gyms nationwide, which included its location at 7720 N. Academy Blvd. on the Springs’ north side.
Manny San Fernando, a commercial broker and retail specialist with Kratt Commercial Properties in Colorado Springs who markets portions of the Broadmoor Towne Center, said 24 Hour Fitness alerted the shopping center’s ownership and management about six months ago that it had decided not to renew its lease. The gym occupies about 45,000 square feet at Broadmoor Towne Center.
Why 24 Hour Fitness chose to leave Broadmoor Towne Center wasn’t known. The Gazette’s archives show the fitness chain has been at the location since 2000; it originally was part of the old Southgate shopping center, which later was redeveloped into the Broadmoor Towne Center.
“My understanding was they were doing well there,” San Fernando said. “They’ve been there for a long time, a very long time. It’s disappointing. … We certainly did not want them to leave. We would have loved to have kept them as a tenant. We did try. But it was just a corporate decision for them to close that store.”
Though he didn’t know for certain why 24 Hour Fitness will close at Broadmoor Towne Center, one possibility might be increased competition from other fitness chains, San Fernando said.
Utah-based VASA Fitness expanded to Colorado Springs in 2018 when it opened in a former Albertsons grocery at 455 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd., about 1½ miles south of the Broadmoor Towne Center. VASA has since opened two additional locations on North Nevada Avenue and Powers Boulevard.
Meanwhile, Orangetheory Fitness opened at the Creekwalk shopping center just west of Broadmoor Towne Center, while several other fitness centers around town include Planet Fitness, Villa Sport and Life Time.
“It’s a very competitive business,” San Fernando said. “I think they’ve all done well in our marketplace. It’s just maybe a little changing of the guard, a bit of different types of fitness that people are seeking. But certainly down in that market, they did get some competition with Orangetheory and VASA, and that might have been the decision for them to close.”
The 24 Hour Fitness space at Broadmoor Towne Center is now on the market and a national tenant is a possibility to take over the location, said San Fernando. He declined to identify the potential new user.
