Watsonville gym closes, members look into suing the owner

Gym members in Watsonville are considering legal action against a local fitness club after it reportedly closed up without warning. More than 2,000 Lifestyle Fitness members want to know where their money went and why the owner isn’t saying what happened.

Gym-goers, many of them who say they paid thousands of dollars up front, said they feel taken advantage of by the gym’s owner. They said the gym has been here for almost 40 years and now they’re discussing plans to sue the owner to recoup their money.

“Everybody’s a family, you know, we have our group classes we all have that communication,” a former fitness instructor for Lifestyle Fitness said.

Gym-goers who gathered on Friday night said Lifestyle Fitness owner Luis Gomez is leaving them in a lurch after abruptly announcing the gym would be closed on Wednesday without an explanation. NewsChannel 5 tried to reach Gomez multiple times and hasn’t heard back. Members said they’re worried about the money they’ve lost and wonder if their personal account information may be in the wrong hands.

“Basically just get together, work with each other and see legally what are the avenues that we can pursue,” said member Mireya Rincon.

Now when people walk up to the front door of Lifestyle Fitness, they find a note on the door saying their membership will be honored at a different health club. Member Alfredo Macias said initially they were told to work out at Gold’s Gym nearby and on Friday it changed to Body Zone down the street.

“I don’t care about the money. I just, (think) they should tell us what’s going on,” Macias said.

Being left in the dark is also causing stress, some are making sure automatic withdraw payments are cancelled and some are out of a job.

“To me it’s really disappointing the way he did it, especially for not letting us know like the workers that were working there. He didn’t even give us any explanation, tell us you know what the gyms closing,” said the instructor.

According to the Lifestyle Fitness Facebook page, the gym is quote, “still working out the details for all of those paid in full.” Body Zone’s owner said he didn’t have an arranged agreement with Lifestyle Fitness, but is trying to work something out with the owner. Watsonville police said there isn’t any type of investigation into the gym at this point.