Steve On Your Side found when Zone Athletic Club closed their locations, they often transferred memberships to other gyms because of a clause in contracts.<\/p>\n
AURORA, Colo. \u2014 Members at Zone Athletic Club at Southlands in Aurora got an abrupt message late last month that their gym was closing in two days.<\/p>\n
The notice said those members were welcome to continue to work out at a nearby YMCA, but many members didn\u2019t realize their memberships had actually been sold to the YMCA and if they wanted to cancel, they\u2019d have to give at least 30 days notice.<\/p>\n
The closure of Zone\u2019s final location is the third such closure in the last year and the third time members have been informed that the gym was exercising a term in the fine print of their membership agreement that allows Zone to transfer their membership to any gym within five miles if the gym shuts its doors.<\/p>\n
Chad Hoffman said he\u2019d heard rumors about the closure earlier in January, but got a notice on Jan. 21 that the gym would close by Jan. 23. He said he immediately tried to contact Zone\u2019s payment provider to cancel his membership as he didn\u2019t want to transfer to the YMCA, but was told the 30-day notice provision in his contract was still valid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should have given us proper notice,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cThey should have allowed us to cancel memberships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tiffany McEwan got the same notice about the closure. She said she and her husband had used the gym for years, but her son had just signed up the week before the announcement of the closure. She said the family didn\u2019t want to continue to the YMCA because the hours were different than Zone\u2019s 24-hour access.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Zone’s] the gym I signed up for,\u201d she said. \u201cThat’s the gym we go to because of their hours. They’re open 24\/7 and that’s why we go there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was met with the same response: if she wanted to cancel, she\u2019d have to provide a 30-day notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get that businesses closed down all the time, but don’t take advantage of the people who kept you in business for all these years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Steve On Your Side<\/a> found on Dec. 18 that a judge issued an order requiring Zone to vacate the Southlands building by Jan. 25 \u2013 as the gym\u2019s landlord argued the gym hadn\u2019t paid all of its rent since May of 2022 and the lease was now in default \u2013 with Zone owing more than $2.9 million.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve been working with our landlord there for a long time,\u201d Zone\u2019s COO Brad Banker said in a phone call with on\u00a0Monday. \u201cBut, you know, with a lot of these landlords, you know, they never forgave our rent during COVID. So, you know, we had back rent there, we got it, you know, deferred, but never forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n Banker said the reason for the late notice is that his company was working to renegotiate lease terms up until the last moment.<\/p>\n
The story of the sudden closure at Zone\u2019s final location at Southlands mirrors how two of its other gyms closed last year.<\/p>\n In March, 9NEWS reported on Zone\u2019s Fort Collins location had been seized by the state government<\/a> for unpaid taxes and was suddenly shuttered.<\/p>\n In that case, memberships were transferred to a Crunch Fitness, which is a little more than a five mile drive from the Zone location, but is less than 5 miles \u201cas the crow flies,\u201d Banker told the Fort Collins Coloradoan in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anna Wilson said she only found out about that gym\u2019s closure when she saw an Instagram story the day it closed. She said she was never notified her membership had transferred to another gym until she saw a charge on her bank account. She said she disputed the charge \u2013 only to be met with threats of being sent to collections from Zone\u2019s payment provider. Those threats subsided after she filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau.<\/p>\n \u201cI was transferred without my consent or without my knowledge, and it was frustrating,\u201d Wilson told 9NEWS this summer. \u201cI was like, ‘I don’t want to go to this gym.’\u201d<\/p>\n She said no one told her about the five mile provision in the gym\u2019s contract when she signed up.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have known that, I would never have signed up with them ever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Months later, members of the Zone Athletic Club location in Cherry Creek were notified of the gym\u2019s closure after months of being moved to different locations.<\/p>\n Susan Patterson paid for her year-long membership in advance. She said Zone\u2019s original gym in Cherry Creek was very nice. But around Thanksgiving of 2023, members were notified that they gym would be temporarily moving for renovations.<\/p>\n Patterson said they chose an abandoned Container Store across the street.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were supposed to be doing ballet barre, and there was no barre,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were using folding chairs.\u201d<\/p>\n Then Patterson said she was informed the gym was being moved further away to the Jewish Community Center in Glendale.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn’t want to go to another place,\u201d she said. \u201cI just wanted my money back.\u201d<\/p>\n But getting that refund proved to be difficult.<\/p>\n 9NEWS found court records that indicated Zone agreed to vacate its original Cherry Creek location in late November of 2023, as landlords accused the company of owing more than $4.9 million in rent. A judge granted an emergency order allowing the landlord to change the locks at the gym after the landlord found Zone had not vacated the building on time and showed photos of people continuing to workout \u2013 along with a sign telling members the building was being renovated.<\/p>\n Bruce Banker is the founder of Zone Athletic Clubs. He also owned a number of Prestige Fitness locations across the Denver metro area.<\/p>\n In February of 2023, Banker and Prestige Fitness were sued by a landlord in Arvada over unpaid rent. In December of 2024, a judge ruled in favor of the landlord in the amount of $2.7 million.<\/p>\n In November of 2023, members of the Arvada Prestige Fitness were transferred to a nearby YMCA. But the YMCA sued Banker and Prestige for violating a contract in that case \u2013 arguing Prestige agreed to pay 60% of member dues to the YMCA each month for three months, but only paid the first month, according to a complaint filed in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n In a default judgement in late 2024, the court ordered Banker and Prestige Fitness to pay the YMCA more than $96,000. But court records show that judgement hasn\u2019t been satisfied.<\/p>\n Steve On Your Side has tried for months to reach Banker about these issues, but he had never responded to phone calls, text messages or emails.<\/p>\n
His son, Brad Banker, served as chief operating officer for Zone Athletic Clubs.<\/p>\n In a phone call on Monday, Banker said these membership transfers are standard practice in the gym industry.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in the gym industry do this all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe’ve bought and sold, you know, numerous membership bases.<\/p>\n \u201cWe in the gym industry try to help each other out with, you know, keeping these, you know, selling of the membership base. That’s all.\u201d<\/p>\n The Colorado Consumer Protection Act includes a specific section on health clubs.<\/a> It only bans gyms from transferring memberships to other locations if those locations are beyond five miles away.<\/p>\n Banker did tell Steve On Your Side that he\u2019s honoring members requests to cancel their memberships without the 30-day notice and offering some refunds.<\/p>\n He emailed Hoffman over the weekend to tell him his January and February dues would be refunded, along with an annual maintenance fee he paid in early December.<\/p>\n In that email, Banker also threatened a lawsuit over Hoffman\u2019s complaints posted on social media, calling him a \u201ckeyboard princess\u201d and telling him \u201cgood luck with your fake and libtard news story.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Banker told Steve On Your Side he said things he shouldn\u2019t have in that email and was only responding so harshly because he felt he was being bullied online.<\/p>\n He said he refunded both Hoffman and McEwan.<\/p>\n He said he\u2019s happy to honor other refund and cancellation requests to members who email info@zoneathleticclubs.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nNot the first time this has happened <\/p>\n
\nState law allows these transfers <\/p>\n