Just as was his routine, Jim Volpone headed to Irondequoit’s Gold’s Gym location in the plaza at the northeast corner of East Ridge Road and Hudson Avenue Monday morning, Aug. 6. He found the place closed. There had been no warning.
It wasn’t until the next day that Volpone and other Gold’s Gym members received a letter from owner Todd Levine.
“After 30 mostly wonderful years in Irondequoit, we will cease operations of that (Irondequoit) facility effective immediately,” Levine wrote in the letter. It was already closed.
“I knew that no matter how we did it (closed), it was going to be unpleasant,” Levine said this past Monday, Aug. 13. “So we decided to just rip the Band-Aid ... We were going to be done in December anyway; it didn’t make any sense to wait.”
The closure, Levine said, was simply a business decision. Coincidentally, he had just attended a Gold’s conference in Las Vegas and won the Franchisee of the Year award. There are more than 700 Gold’s Gyms worldwide, he said.
Levine, who grew up in Irondequoit, has owned the Irondequoit Gold’s Gym for 30 years, and said he had been in the plaza at Ridge and Hudson for 15 years, and at its current spot for the last seven years.
“We knew this would be our last seven years (there),” Levine said. “We had 30 great years ... but at the end of the day, times are changing and we just weren’t moving forward.”
The variables that went into his decision, Levine said in his letter to members, were “a decline in the market and neighborhood in recent years, safety and security of both members and employees,” the physical plant, and an industry move to a “training-centric” model that could not be supported in the space available in Irondequoit.
Gym member Volpone said that while he agreed the gym wasn’t moving forward, he was upset by the letter.
“I feel they (Gold’s) didn’t keep up with the competition,” Volpone said, adding that as a former probation officer himself, he thinks the ‘decline in the neighborhood’ reasoning is only “perception.”
“Actually, I found that reason insulting,” Volpone added. “Young people and young families are moving into Irondequoit.”
John Perticone had been a regular at Gold’s for 20 years, but says he not only is sad to see it close, “but also, as a town councilman, I don’t want to see any business leave Irondequoit.”
Just as was his routine, Jim Volpone headed to Irondequoit’s Gold’s Gym location in the plaza at the northeast corner of East Ridge Road and Hudson Avenue Monday morning, Aug. 6. He found the place closed. There had been no warning.
It wasn’t until the next day that Volpone and other Gold’s Gym members received a letter from owner Todd Levine.
“After 30 mostly wonderful years in Irondequoit, we will cease operations of that (Irondequoit) facility effective immediately,” Levine wrote in the letter. It was already closed.
“I knew that no matter how we did it (closed), it was going to be unpleasant,” Levine said this past Monday, Aug. 13. “So we decided to just rip the Band-Aid ... We were going to be done in December anyway; it didn’t make any sense to wait.”
The closure, Levine said, was simply a business decision. Coincidentally, he had just attended a Gold’s conference in Las Vegas and won the Franchisee of the Year award. There are more than 700 Gold’s Gyms worldwide, he said.
Levine, who grew up in Irondequoit, has owned the Irondequoit Gold’s Gym for 30 years, and said he had been in the plaza at Ridge and Hudson for 15 years, and at its current spot for the last seven years.
“We knew this would be our last seven years (there),” Levine said. “We had 30 great years ... but at the end of the day, times are changing and we just weren’t moving forward.”
The variables that went into his decision, Levine said in his letter to members, were “a decline in the market and neighborhood in recent years, safety and security of both members and employees,” the physical plant, and an industry move to a “training-centric” model that could not be supported in the space available in Irondequoit.
Gym member Volpone said that while he agreed the gym wasn’t moving forward, he was upset by the letter.
“I feel they (Gold’s) didn’t keep up with the competition,” Volpone said, adding that as a former probation officer himself, he thinks the ‘decline in the neighborhood’ reasoning is only “perception.”
“Actually, I found that reason insulting,” Volpone added. “Young people and young families are moving into Irondequoit.”
John Perticone had been a regular at Gold’s for 20 years, but says he not only is sad to see it close, “but also, as a town councilman, I don’t want to see any business leave Irondequoit.”
He wasn’t offered a rebate of his (prepaid) membership, Volpone said, but Levine does encourage members in his letter “to check out our Webster location,” which is at 855 Publishers Parkway, off Five Mile Line Road.
Levine said Monday that the fact the nationwide chain LA Fitness is moving into Irondequoit — its new facility at the northeast corner of East Ridge Road and Kings Highway is nearly complete — had no bearing on his decision.
“I don’t think anyone has shut down before they (LA Fitness) came to town ... maybe two years after ...,” Levine said.
He also said that the fact the Six Pockets restaurant in the same plaza as his Irondequoit gym closed the same weekend was only coincidence.
“I just didn’t perceive that I had a choice (other than closing),” Levine said.
