Garden City fitness club closing in two weeks, ‘consolidating’ with Boise gym

Planet Fitness in Garden City notified its members Friday in an email that it will be closing. It will close permanently at 7 p.m. Sept. 16.

The club opened 10 years ago at 6843 N. Strawberry Glen Road, according to club manager Joel Stinton. It is one of two Planet Fitness clubs in Idaho.

The closure was a decision of the club’s new franchise ownership group, CM3 Boise Orchard LLC. The Garden City facility is about 12,000 square feet — much smaller than the current Planet Fitness model of sites that are over 20,000 square feet, Stinton said.

“That footprint doesn’t meet our needs anymore,” Stinton said. “We want to find locations that will allow us to accommodate the brand model.”

The new ownership group, which owns 35 clubs in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Utah, is looking for sites around the Treasure Valley to open new clubs, he said.

In the meantime, they’re hoping that Garden City members will join the club at 5010 W. Overland Road in Boise. The Overland road club is 6.4 miles to 10.4 miles from the Garden City club by car, depending on which route you take, according to Googlemaps.

Stinton said many club members are loyal, and he’s already handled dozens of membership transfers. There are no transfer fees, nor are there any added discounts or other incentives for those transferring from Garden City to Boise.

The club’s membership fee is $10 per month, and it’s offered on a month-to-month basis.

“So far the majority of the members that I’ve spoke to are checking us out, seeing how they feel about the drive,” he said.

Stinton was a part-owner in the previous franchise ownership group. He plan to stay on as manager of the Overland site.

This story was originally published August 28, 2017 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Garden City fitness club closing in two weeks, ‘consolidating’ with Boise gym."