Thursday, November 26, 2009
STAFF REPORT
BOARDMAN — Signature Fitness and Health Center, which replaced Club South on Tiffany Boulevard in March, has closed.
In a letter posted on the club’s door, the owner wrote: “I tried to keep this facility up and going on my own, and I have exhausted all means financially to just pay the overhead and employees.”
In March, Andrea Leonard of Canfield and her husband, Clark, started the fitness center at 7120 Tiffany Boulevard in the property where Club South once operated.
Leonard was leasing the property from John Giannios, of Giannios Candy in Struthers.
In February 2008, Giannios received a court order to have Club South closed. The club’s owner agreed to terminate his lease and leave equipment for Giannios. At the time, Giannios said the former owner was behind on rent and did not have liability insurance for the club, which had about 2,000 members.
Creekside Fitness in Boardman was interested in taking over the club in 2008, but those talks ultimately broke down, and Signature Fitness and Health Center opened.
Leonard retained some of the equipment that the previous owners left behind but added her own machines as well. She also oversaw renovations to the club.
“My intentions were to try and create a fun [and] happy fitness facility for friends,” according to the letter posted on the club’s door.
Leonard did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
“The time has finally come, with a very heavy heart. I have no choice but to close the doors,” she wrote in the letter.
Leonard has been in talks with management at Creekside Fitness, 1419 Boardman-Canfield Road, about letting Signature Fitness and Health Center members use the remainder of their membership at Creekside, said Ed Reese, owner of Creekside Fitness.
That agreement is still in the “talking stages,” Reese said.