COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU COULD’VE HAD A CHAIN STORE! 
“this was a terrible gym location, and parking was going to be a battle from day one. hate to be johnny-come-suburb, but it was a better call to work a deal to redevelop the site with CVS and give them their free-standing deal with drive thru. Soma would be down the street somewhere, hopefully with easier access/parking, crew would not be under, and this property would be better served than the future it has. now the owner spent time/effort with this problem, has a built-out gym that is not usable for another gym (nightclub, here we come…for 9 months), has 3500 sf that doesn’t lease (my guess is from lack of parking/ability to pay the rent) and has a basement (???) that will never lease. all of this, and he could be on a beach right now, getting his checks in the mail from year 4 of 20 with CVS as the return addressee.” [jg, commenting on Fitness-Club Scavengers at the Washington Ave Crew] Photo of West End Shopping Center, Washington Ave at Shepherd: Aaron Carpenter
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There is a another gym just across the tracks called Houston Gym with little parking and is busy and doing quite well.
It may have more to do with the actual operators versus the location.
Basement? At grade?
That building has a full basement on it, 15,000 sq ft if memory serves. Used for storage when it was a Weingartens, according to a colleague who delivered products there way back.
Cool, that must be a pretty darn old store, it was Minimax #2 originally. My dad used to own some Minimax stores..
I was excited about this renovation until the crappy orange cones came out. Valet parking is such a turn off for me. As for the gym, a gym down drunk row was simply a poor business decision and it isn’t an appealing looking one (unlike Houston Gym).
kjb – it’s a combination of things. Your take that the operators were weak is valid. The truth is Houston Gym has a loyal, small contingent of customers while maintaining low overhead and being a one-off location that is relatively convenient.
Crew was probably operating at 3-4 times the overhead, which meant they had to have a bigger membership…something they just couldn’t achieve here.
Terrible parking there, and I simply refuse to let anybody park my car.