ToNeTo Atlanta reported in January on the closure of Athletic Club Northeast (1515 Sheridan Road) after more than four decades in business. The facility's closure came as a surprise to many longtime members left scrambling for a new gym. We and others in the community had speculated the property was likely to be the target of redevelopment.
Life Time (NYSE: LTH), based in Chanhassen, Minnesota, entered the Atlanta market in 2006 with a club in Alpharetta. The company has since expanded to Woodstock, Johns Creek, Sandy Springs, Sugarloaf and Peachtree Corners. This past December, the company opened one of its largest, nicest, and most expensive clubs in the country at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead. The new 115,000 square foot club spans five stories and includes a myriad of fitness options as well as a rooftop pool. The Buckhead club also features a separate Life Time Work, a co-working concept the company recently introduced with an Atlanta area location adjacent to the company's Sandy Springs club at The Prado on Roswell Road.
The RMR Group (NASDAQ: RMR), a Newton, Massachusetts-based "alternative asset management company," also owns the Life Time facility in Alpharetta on North Point Parkway.
Unlike rival fitness facility operator LA Fitness which often utilizes existing spaces or converts other gyms, Life Time typically builds their own locations. Athletic Club Northeast and its 70s era building will surely present some challenges and perhaps opportunities for the premium club operator.
In a release announcing the transaction, the company did not shed light on just how long of a renovation residents can expect or when a wait list may open or pre-sales will occur.
Are you excited for the opening of the new Life Time? If you were displaced by the closure of Athletic Club Northeast, have you found a new club? Are you pleased to see a club reopening at the property versus it being redeveloped?
Please share your thoughts below.
30 comments:
Membership costs are out of reach for those that aren't super wealthy.
As a former ACNE member, I am thrilled to hear this! Can’t wait until it opens!
I’m super excited. I believe Lifetime management will be worth the cost.
I am one of the original members, dating back 45 years. So disappointed when it closed. The location is terrific for me so I will rejoin when it reopens under a new name and ownership. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Pleased! Member since 1994. Fitness is worth the cost. Other clubs inadequate or too far away.
Will the instructors who lost their jobs be given opportunities to come back?
Will all the instructors who lost their multi-decade jobs with just 2-weeks notice be given the opportunity to come back?
Excited to see this club becoming a Lifetime facility!
I hope so! I am one of those instructors, and taught there for nearly 14 years.
This is great news for all us former ACNE members! Hoping that the venture works and will be affordable. Best wishes to those who are promoting this!
That is surprising news. Glad it will continue as a Fitness Center even if it is a very high priced facility.
Please put a LifeTime in Decatur next 🙏🏻
Great news! I loved ACNE and am so happy Lifetime has taken over. It will be a little more spendy, but worth every penny!
I was wondering if they will hire past employees.
I was a member at ACNE for 25 years and was very disappointed in the way that it closed only giving 2 weeks notice. I will be happy to come back to the newly renovated club.
I hope we do. I was an ACN instructor for over 24 years. I live near the location and would love to be teaching there again!
Another former ACN member here, 16 years. I’m excited and hopeful about this development.
Will the staff insist that people cover themselves properly in the locker room, or continue to allow the endless sausage parade while guys walk around and laugh and talk and take selfies of their junk in the mirror?
Will there be dedicated pickleball courts?
Lol everyone thinking they’ll rehire existing staff. This comment nailed it, place was trash. Staff was awful. I’m pretty sure Lifetime isn’t going to invest millions so they can rerun the dumpster fire that ACNE was. Literally even the acronym is trash
Well it is a locker room. That’s what locker rooms are for. Changing clothes, showering, steaming, whirl pool, and getting dressed, all of which involve nudity. As a member of ACNE for many years I never once saw members photographing their “junk”.
This is wonderful news! I joined the Atlanta Athletic Club over 30 years ago when it was like a town club. The facility has enormous potential. Hopefully, they will add back the restaurant and bar that closed many years ago.
It’s a locker room not a nudist camp. Get your business done and move on. It’s often a naked hangout, especially during daytime hours. And you must not look in the mirror while you’re getting ready, it’s plenty easy to see all sorts of things going on like the selfies.
Great news! Look forward to getting this location back open. Best layout and location.
I would love to attend the new facility. However I am a single member and I’m not willing to pay a HIGH MONTHLY FEE for my limited use.
Will the new facility honor the "Silver Sneakers" program for those of us that qualify for this plan? When the gym closed many of us Seniors joined LA Fitness for no cost since our supplemental health plan covered the costs. What will Lifetime do about this?
Wow, what a laundry list of comments. The past ACNE closed because it was nowhere near making the income it needed to remain open. Therefore, change is needed. I look forward to the changes the new ownership will bring and expect to pay for them in increased dues. As a longtime member, I look forward to when it opens and wlll pay within reason to remain at this location.
With respect to the "off the wall comments" about nudity, the acronym ACNE, there's no need for this. Stuff happens at any place of business, although I never once in my years at the club saw what was mentioned in some of the remarks.
Once again, kudos to Lifetime Fitness for stepping in and seeing the potential and I look forward to the renovation, changes and resurgence of this new club.
Great News! I was a long term member and very excited about this news. Please keep the racquetball courts!!
As someone who used to take nude selfies at ACNE, I feel personally attacked. Will they have full length mirrors so perhaps I can get a better angle?
And please tell me they will keep the blow dryers as I always like to prop a leg up Captain Morgan style and blow dry my misters. I didn't pay a HIGH MONTHLY FEE to towel dry them like some peasant.
And pickle ball court?.....Tell me more. Are we holding trial now while bare pickle in the locker room? If so, that sounds delightful.
we need on the east side of Atlanta too
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