A Collingwood fitness centre is appealing to the community for help finding a new home ASAP.
Chris Grolla, owner of MVMT fitness and performance centre on High Street, says he may have to be out of his current location as soon as March 31. While he might be able to get more time in the spot, it will be short-term and he's looking for a long-term solution.
The current lease agreement expired last year and he's been on month-to-month payments since then, but received notice in February from his landlord to vacate. Since putting out a call for help, he said he's received a lot of kind words and offers of support.
"That gives me hope that we're going to find another solution, but it's tough, there's nothing in Collingwood for commercial space that suits us," said Grolla. "It's either too expensive, or it doesn't suit fitness in terms of zoning or the space itself."
Still he's working a few angles and making a series of plans a, b, and c.
"I feel good," said Grolla. "I was, in a sense, kind of a little paralyzed initially. But I'm quite grounded now, I have a team of people who are working different avenues ... and we're working a plan that I'm confident breathes a little life into our longevity and our continuity."
MVMT is a fitness centre and it is also a squash club with two singles courts and a doubles court inside.
According to Grolla, there are about 400 members who work out, train, and/or play squash at MVMT. About 90 of those are squash members and the club has recently started a youth program with about 14 teens going through the training camps over the past year. He said the squash club is growing slowly, and had one of its best years of late.
While he is "confident" he'll get the fitness centre moved quickly, Grolla said it's the squash side of the business that "hurts the most," because he's not sure he'll be able to find a spot or capital for new courts.
"Squash is a tough conversation ... it's not viable for me to build courts somewhere else in a place that I'm leasing," said Grolla, noting the current courts exist because the membership put in their own money to build them. "We would need something like that again."
Squash is played in an enclosed room on specialized courts with all players standing at the same end, facing a wall. The object of the game is to hit the ball off the wall in front of you and the opposing player has to return it. Over-simplified, the wall functions like the net in tennis. In singles, there are two people on the court returning to each other. In doubles, there are four people on the court and a team can hit the ball three times before returning it. A doubles court is larger than a single court.
The current course at MVMT were built through the effort of a group of about 20 players who put up the money to build two singles courts and a doubles court at what was then Barton's Martial Arts Academy, and has since gone through different names, such as TAG fitness and The Centre, before becoming MVMT.
The doubles court at MVMT is the only one north of the GTA, and the club regularly hosts tournaments.
READ MORE: Former Queen's Club squash players still on the court after 30 years
Grolla said he is currently looking for about 4,000 to 5,000 square feet of space in Collingwood where he can move the fitness side of the business quickly.
"That's our immediate ask, is finding some space short-term," said Grolla.
