Denver Queer-based gym fundraising to stay open, despite rising rent

By GABRIELA VIDAL

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    DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — An LGBTQIA+ fitness gym in the University Hills area is pushing to stay afloat, amid rising commercial rental prices in Denver.

“If we lose this space, I don’t know when or if we would get another space like this,” said Styler Ells.

Ells is the owner of Metamorphosis Fitness, Denver’s first queer-based gym. It has served as a safe space for the queer community and allies to come together and work out.

“I can walk fully into this space as all of me and have people accept me for all of who I am at face value,” said Joy Crouse, who is a coach and personal trainer at the fitness center.

The goal, Ells says, is to help those who identify as queer feel comfortable reconnecting their body and their true self.

“A lot of the folks who come into this gym have never set foot in a gym before because they didn’t feel comfortable,” they said. “I think now more than ever it’s important that we preserve this space. The queer community doesn’t have a lot of sober safe spaces.”

However, Ells says their growing community of 115 folks could now be at risk of losing the gym.

“When we signed a lease in 2017, we had specific conversations about what that would look like and unfortunately, there was a new management company that took over in the end of 2021,” said Ells. “Then, starting in 2022, our rent increased by about 30% every month, and so we now have this really large back balance due of common area maintenance charges, that quite frankly the gym can’t support.”

Now, they have a back balance of roughly $14,000.

“Property taxes are probably adding $4 to $6 a square foot to a tenant’s rent,” said Andrew Dodgen. “Let’s say its 1,000 square foot space, which is not a big space. $4 to $6 per square foot increase… that’s about $350 to $500 a month.”

Dodgen is a commercial real estate broker with Fuller Real Estate.

He says rising property taxes are part of why retail spaces may be seeing more significant increases in rent right now.

“There’s other factors like location, those hipper, hot locations, those rates are going up,” said Dodgen. “And that’s a function too of the fact that the cost to be there for a landlord goes up to as well because everyone understands, hey people want to be here. Whether its River North or Sloan’s Lake or wherever people want to be here versus the central business district where people are not necessarily wanting to be right now.”

Ells says on top of unmanageable rent prices, their gym operates on a sliding scale in order to help some of their more struggling clients get the opportunity to continue using the gym.

“Because we are a queer gym, we have a lot of folks that work the service industry. we have a lot of folks who are students,” said Ells. “So, we have a number of folks who pay a portion of the membership and then the rest of it is either given up, or written off, or if we do have income, through donations we write it as a scholarship. And, so, because of that our income fluctuates a lot.”

In order to keep their safe space open, Ells and their team started an online fundraising effort, so their clients, trainers and allies can keep pushing their authentic selves on the mat.

“They can come in here, be themselves, whatever iteration that is today and they know that they’ll be respected, and they’ll be included,” said Ells.

Long term, Ells is working on creating a nonprofit that may be able to one day financially support Metamorphosis Fitness.

More information about the gym and how to help out can be found at Metamorphosis Fitness Denver on Facebook and on their website.

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