
{"id":12638,"date":"2010-09-16T08:17:37","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T16:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=12638"},"modified":"2010-09-16T08:45:02","modified_gmt":"2010-09-16T16:45:02","slug":"carolina-fitness-reopens-as-kinetix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/09\/16\/carolina-fitness-reopens-as-kinetix\/","title":{"rendered":"Carolina Fitness reopens as Kinetix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson, Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CARRBORO  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d After closing for three months for renovations, downtown gym Carolina Fitness reopened as a Kinetix Health Club on Monday \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not a moment too soon for some of its members. <\/p>\n<p>Carolina Fitness owner David Gillespie partnered with Kinetix, a Georgia-based health club chain, to renovate and reopen the gym, which closed for renovations on June 12. Several members told The Citizen they were upset with the lack of communication regarding the closure, saying they were only informed via a piece of paper taped to the gym\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s front door about a week prior. <\/p>\n<p>Manager Alex Velazquez, who has worked with Carolina Fitness since 1999, said gym staff didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give customers a timeframe for the closure because they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure how long the renovations would take. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everything in the club was touched up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. The space has new wood floors, fresh paint and a new roof, in addition to mostly new equipment. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This was all for [the members],\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Velazquez said.<\/p>\n<p>Ruth Newnam, a member of Carolina Fitness, said she would have liked to have had some communication from gym management via email or their website. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was pretty happy with the gym initially; but when they closed for renovations, they just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t communicate that to us at all,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. Newnam said when she asked gym staff about the notice on the door, she was told the gym would be closed for at least a week and that she could use the Chapel Hill Kinetix, which Gillespie and Kinetix owner Mark Cullars opened on Elliot Road in January.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I tried that, and the first day I went over there it took me 17 minutes to drive there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Newnam, who lives across the street from the Carrboro gym. <\/p>\n<p>Weeks later, she said, she was told that the gym would open on Labor Day. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There were several of us in the parking lot waiting to go work out,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Newnam said, when a contractor came outside to inform them that the gym was closed. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not so upset about the renovation, because I know it needed it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The lack of communication has sort of inconvenienced us further.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Newnam said she has tried to speak with the gym owners several times, but has never received a response. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I go to the gym to be healthier, fitter, stronger and happier, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m walking in there with just this hostility in me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to come out feeling better and being able to treat other people better, knowing that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taken care of myself.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I guess it would be something resembling an apology that I want,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would also like to know that they are looking to be a part of wellness in this community and not just trying to make a buck off people who pay and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come to the gym.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Velazquez said he did not want to comment on the concerns of members regarding the closure, adding that members can speak to him personally about their specific concerns. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am here every day to talk to you in person,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is your club.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>In addition, Velazquez said he did not want to discuss whether Carolina Fitness members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contracts were still valid or if they would need to sign a new contract, saying that it was too complicated to put in the newspaper. <\/p>\n<p>Kristy Ford, a member of Carolina Fitness off and on since 2005, said she thought the club should offer its members some kind of compensation for the time that it was closed. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My thought was that what they should do, because they were closed for three months, is they should extend the length of everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contract by the period of time that they were closed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I paid for 12 months. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay for nine months.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Ford said the closure was especially inconvenient because it was during the hot summer months. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we joined a gym \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for rainy days, cold days and hot days,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>Ford, who lives next door to the Carrboro Kinetix, said Velazquez told her there was a clause in her contract stating that in the event they had to close they would make a facility within an 8-mile radius available to members. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really get in a car unless I have to, so that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really an option for me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that when she signed her contract there was only one Carolina Fitness location. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I guess I was agreeing to that, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize &#8230; that it would affect me, because I thought that they were only a one-location gym.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  <\/p>\n<p>Velazquez said gym staff is planning a grand opening and member-appreciation celebration sometime in the next couple of weeks. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Right now we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just happy to have the club open for everybody,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12639\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12639\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/P9156302.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"P9156302\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/P9156302.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/P9156302-113x84.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/P9156302-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/P9156302-360x270.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/P9156302-106x80.jpg 106w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12639\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY SUSAN DICKSON. The former Carolina Fitness was closed three months for renovations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After closing for three months for renovations, downtown gym Carolina Fitness reopened as a Kinetix Health Club on Monday \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not a moment too soon for some of its members. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12638"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12678,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12638\/revisions\/12678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}