NY Sports Clubs Preps for Post-Sandy Return

New York Sports Clubs in Long Beach plans to reopen next month after the Hurricane Sandy-damaged gym was beset by a work stoppage in the midst of reconstruction last spring.

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Frank Spano, the new general manager of the gym at 265 E. Park Ave., told Patch NYSC plans reopen the building Dec. 30. As of Wednesday, the gym’s interior floors, walls and studios were restored, but the facility remains empty. NYSC will invest more than $1 million to furnish the two-story, 20,000-square-foot building with new equipment.

“We’ll have state-of-the-art cardio equipment and resistance training,” said Spano, who noted that a UXF training zone will be among the gym’s new features.

Spano — who said he earned a masters degree in kinesiology and physiology from Penn State and has 15 years of experience working in exercise/sports-related fields — was hired by NYSC seven months ago and was asked to manage the reconstructed Long Beach gym.  

While NYSC is a corporate entity, Spano vows to manage the gym differently. For starters, he said he’s recruited NYSC’s top trainers to work in Long Beach.

“I look at this gym as a separate entity,” he said. “I want to give each member a concierge service.”

On Nov. 11 the gym started to offer new rates and memberships to all comers, including the ability for new members to win a one-year membership if they refer a friend who also joins the club.

Asked what NYSC will do for pre-Sandy members, Spano pointed to a Nov. 8 letter that was sent to them by Rick Bouza, NYSC’s vice president of operations, in which he wrote: “Your upgrade to a Passport membership as a result of the closing is permanent. That means in addition to Long Beach, you can work out at more than 100 NYSC clubs.”

Last spring, Patch reported that while contractors were repairing and reconstructing the storm-damaged gym, the City of Long Beach on April 2 issued a stop work order. Scott Kemins, the city’s building commissioner, said the order was issued based on complaints from NYSC that the landlord wasn’t making the proper repairs.

Spano declined to talk about the circumstances surrounding the delays. The only reference to it in Bouza’s letter was as follows: “The damage caused by Hurricane Sandy was significant, and the road to restoration has been lined with many obstacles.”