By: Benyamin Davidsons
Real estate investment firm Savanna has filed separate lawsuits claiming a total of $5.3 million in unpaid rent for three gym brands under the umbrella of Equinox Group.
As reported by Crain’s NY, the lawsuits were filed on Thursday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. The landlord of both locations alleges that Blink Fitness and SoulCycle gyms at 5 Bryant Park have failed to make any rental payments since the pandemic forced their closure in April 2020. Further, it alleges that the Equinox gym at 31 W. 27th St., which remains shuttered, has also not made payments since the lease began in March 2021.
The cycling studio remains closed but plans to reopen this year, as per its website. Blink’s website seems to say that the fitness center is open, but phone calls to the location were not answered. The 31 W. 27th street location, was never opened to begin with. Equinox had announced in October 2019, before the pandemic, that it would open a new 39,000-square-foot NoMad Equinox location in the ground floor and basement of the 12- story Savanna building. It never opened, but it remains unclear whether the fitness company wants to open or will try to terminate its 20-year lease.
On January 15, the city’s temporary ban on commercial evictions and foreclosures expired, leading to heaps of lawsuits filed by landlords seeking missing payments and threatening to remove tenants who didn’t previously submit a Covid-19 hardship declaration.
New York gyms were particularly hard hit by the pandemic, with their closure mandated by the governor as of March 2020. Fitness club owners and operators had been hoping for some extra federal aid to get them back on their feet. As per Crain’s, in September roughly 300 fitness companies wrote a letter together asking Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for assistance. So far their cries have gone unanswered.
Equinox has been the focus of a at least five lawsuits across the city, with landlords suing for rent unpaid during the pandemic in different locations—including at 14 Wall St., 421 Hudson St. in the West Village, 568 Broadway in SoHo and 670 Broadway. In one instance, in October, an appellate judge ruled that the gym chain must pay its landlord at 670 Broadway in NoHo $450,000 in back rent for payments owed from August to October.
