LA Fitness closure, COVID shifts alter Evanston health club landscape

With the closing of the Evanston health club LA Fitness in mid-April and changes that came about during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a shift in the Evanston health club climate. 

The closing of LA Fitness last month is another piece of the downtown Evanston puzzle. Officials are considering funding a study on how to revive the city’s business districts. Credit: Bob Seidenberg

The city’s Economic Development Manager, Paul Zalmezak, who spoke with the LA Fitness Club corporate office when the closing was announced, said the company had made the decision based on low sales of new memberships as well as the high cost of doing business in Evanston.

He said the space vacated by the club in Evanston is about 58,000 square feet and cost the club more than $2 million to rent each year. With a drop in membership numbers from around 5,000 to 3,500 the club was unable to cover its expenses.

“There were interesting efforts in the community to get the company to keep the Evanston location open,” said Zalemezak. “Alderman [Clare] Kelly spoke with the LA Fitness corporate office, asking them what it would take. Corporate decided not to do it.”

Zalmezak said that the loss of the health club was significant to many of those living in Evanston’s downtown. Silver Sneakers, an exercise program for older adults that is included in many Medigap and Medicare Advantage plans, was hosted in Evanston by LA Fitness. “We reached out to other gyms [about hosting the program], but some are too small to host Silver Sneakers and it’s not being offered at Evanston Athletic Club.”

Evanston Athletic Club instructor Cynthia Narcisi (on stage) demonstrates for enthusiastic students in her “Hula Hoop Core Challenge” class.

Will Roberts, Customer Service Manager at Evanston Athletic Club, 1723 Benson Ave., said its membership numbers have been increasing. “We’ve had a large uptick recently due to LA Fitness shutting down,” said Roberts. “Our business in general has increased by about 50% in terms of foot traffic, membership sales, inquiries.”

Izzy Libmann, owner of TruFit, a private personal training studio at 610 Davis St. in downtown Evanston, said that some of the trainers that lost their jobs at LA Fitness had come to work out of TruFit and that the studio’s offerings had changed in a number of ways.

“Everyone went online, doing training on Zoom, and that seems to be sticking for the time being. And we now have clients that live in different states. That will stay,” said Libmann. “We also discovered that we don’t need to work the split shifts we used to work before and after [9-5] work hours. It wasn’t a healthy way to run my business, but my clients started working from home and could take an hour at lunch.” 

LA Fitness closure, COVID shifts alter Evanston health club landscape