![]() This map is refreshed with the newest listings in Fairmount-Art Museum every 15 minutes. Popular neighborhoods include Fairmount, South Philadelphia, Fishtown, Center City, and Rittenhouse. Most homes for sale in Fairmount-Art Museum stay on the market for 51 days and receive 1 offers. Some of these homes are "Hot Homes," meaning they're likely to sell quickly. “It’s something that keeps me driven but grounded at the same time.There are currently 27 townhouses for sale in Fairmount-Art Museum at a median listing price of $504K. These days, Davies said, he functions in a state of “productive paranoia” because “things can always change.” Integral, he said, is “an unbelievably strong brand particularly driven by the quality of the offering and Ken’s commitment to building a culture there.” TD has provided $1 million in financing for Fishtown, and a $100,000 letter of credit to support the Sterling lease. TD Bank is sold on what Trimble said is “a model that works.” Opening in December in Fishtown was a full-scale gym that will offer 25,000 square feet of workout space when fully built out. A smaller “express gym” opened in South Philadelphia in November 2014, followed in April 2015 by what Davies said has been the only failure so far, a personal-training studio in Society Hill at Fourth and Walnut Streets. It wasn’t until 2012 that Davies could open a second location, in the city’s Graduate Hospital section. “If you think you have it figured out, it changes.” Success is “about staying ahead of the game” and keeping members happy, Shannon said. “Fitness is a moving target,” said Tracy Shannon, an owner of competitor Sweat, which has been in business since 1997 and plans to open its eighth gym in March at 1 South Broad Street. “City Fitness’ costs are a direct result of how expensive it is to maintain the level of quality seen in our clubs,” said Wingert, who last year created the city wellness initiative, My City Moves, to achieve another City Fitness objective: community-building. That’s a place where equipment is replaced every three years, a robust schedule of group exercise is offered along with top-notch training programs, and where service with a smile and fastidious cleaning are priorities, said Tom Wingert, marketing director for City Fitness. “But you can’t provide the gym I wanted.” “They have a great model,” Davies said of Planet Fitness, where memberships are currently offered for $10 a month. ![]() City Fitness memberships dropped to $19.99 a month, quickly attracting 1,000 sign-ups. To help turn things around, he borrowed the low-cost strategy of a competitor, Planet Fitness. Membership sales were slow and revenue from personal training virtually nonexistent, which Davies largely attributed to the recession. Then “things turned from bad to worse,” as can be expected when expenses - equipment leases, instructors, software, office and cleaning supplies, rent - exceed income. By then, about 10 percent of the presale members had asked for refunds, Davies said. The first City Fitness gym opened in August 2007. Build-out took an additional six or seven. It took five months to secure the Small Business Administration loan. Buyers turned against Davies when no gym materialized, accusing him on at least one blog site of stealing their money, he said. ![]() He was selling memberships for $29.99 a month based on poster-board depictions of what he planned for the site.Ībout 300 memberships were sold. ![]() Incorporating in May 2005, Davies started paying $20,000 a month to rent the Second and Spring Garden location, which he expected to have open for business in 2006. Even to this day, even with my success, it’s still difficult.” “One banker said, ‘If you were Walt Disney, we wouldn’t lend to you if it was a gym.’ They hated gyms. Which explains the lack of enthusiasm Davies encountered early on: Another is uncertainty of membership duration. Lack of collateral is one, because most gym owners lease facilities. That’s true for many reasons, said Mike Trimble, a vice president in commercial lending at TD Bank. ![]() As such, he is helping Davies locate expansion financing. “I believe he is someone to watch in the fitness industry,” said Wes Deming, principal of All Commercial Capital L.L.C., who was a member of City Fitness before agreeing three years ago to serve as its financial adviser. “That was the lowest point in my life,” he said.Ĭity Fitness is now profitable, with gross revenues of $7.5 million, 100 employees, and national growth aspirations, Davies said. One of the worst times, Davies said, was “when I basically slept in a van for a week because I was locked out of my house because I couldn’t pay my mortgage.” The other was when his debit card was declined at Wawa for a $1 purchase. Plus, he had lost his primary job in information, analytics, and marketing for the commercial real estate industry because he didn’t disclose his gym business. ![]()
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