GoodLife Fitness closing west end location

The city’s west end will see another gym with classes and childcare close as the west end GoodLife Fitness will cease operation on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.

The popular gym will become a Fit4Less location as of Monday, Nov. 18, 2019, according to those with the company. In doing so, the gym will eliminate all classes and childcare services. All current members of the GoodLife Fitness location will have their memberships transferred to the GoodLife location in downtown Kingston on Barrack Street. That location offers fitness classes, but no childcare services.

According to Mark Vogler, GoodLife Fitness Director of Operations for Eastern Ontario, the decision was made as a result of the company weighing its options to on how to best serve the community.

“GoodLife regularly conducts evaluations of our operations to ensure we’re meeting the needs of our Members and Associates in the communities we’re in. As part of this review, we have looked carefully at this Club and have taken into consideration the different options that we can make available to the Kingston community. After this evaluation we have decided that merging our two GoodLife Clubs into the Barrack and Wellington [Streets] location and converting the Norwest Club to our low-cost Fit4Less Club model will allow us to best serve the needs of the local community,” Vogler said in an email to Kingstonist.

“The Norwest Plaza GoodLife will close on November 12 and will reopen as a Fit4Less on November 18. Members have been given immediate access to all Clubs in Ontario, including our Barrack and Wellington Club, until February 2020 to help find a new home Club that best fits their needs,” Vogler continued.

“While this was a difficult decision to make, combining the two Clubs will allow us to offer our Members a single GoodLife location with the services and programs they want, while also providing a low-cost option to other members of the community.”

According to those with the west end location, personal trainers at the location have been invited to join the team at the downtown location, however, the rest of the staff at the west end location will be let go. Most staff were informed on Monday, Oct. 7 about the impending change.

Vogler said the company is doing what it can to retain associates.

“Any decision that impacts our people is never an easy one to make. Impact on our Associates varies from position to position, but we are working hard to retain as many Associates as possible. We will be working with our Associates individually to determine exactly how many will be transferred to new Clubs. This change is by no means a reflection of the dedication and passion that our Associates have invested in helping people in Kingston reach their fitness goals,” he said.

“Our goal remains the same: to help everyone in Kingston achieve their health and wellness goals. Decisions like this allow us to meet that goal to the best of our ability.”

The announcement comes mere months after the west end YMCA location was closed, which resulted in a large number of YMCA members switching over to GoodLife.

GoodLife Fitness and Fit4Less clubs are both owned by GoodLife, but their memberships are exclusive to one or the other club.

UPDATE (Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019) — Fit4Less at Kingston Centre will also close
According to those with GoodLife, the Fit4Less location at the Kingston Centre will also be closing. That location will close on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019, and will move to the former GoodLife Fitness site in the west end in the Norwest Plaza. There are no plans for the Fit4Less site currently operating in the Kingston Centre. Members there will remain members at the new Fit4Less location.

Editorial note: An earlier version of this article stated that the west end GoodLife would cease operations on Monday, Nov. 11, and that the location would become a Fit4Less club on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019. The GoodLife club will actually cease operations on Tuesday, Nov. 12, and open as a Fit4Less on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2019.