In the last three years, CrossFit Rewired owner Adam Ludlow saw his roster swell to a high of 238 members.

Ludlow and his team of five trainers had planned for a banner 2020 at the North Spokane gym until the arrival of COVID-19 and the state-mandated business lockdown intended to slow its spread.

CrossFit Rewired, which Ludlow founded in 2013, moved in September 2017 into refurbished space in a North Side strip mall at 7512 N. Division.

“Financially, we’ve been set back about two years,” Ludlow says.

Customers who had been laid off from their jobs dumped memberships, which start at $129 per month, to save money. The result was a 36% drop in enrollment.

What didn’t change for Ludlow was rent and other operational costs associated with the 6,500-square-foot building – in excess of $8,000 per month, he says.

Ludlow’s story is familiar among fitness club operators, both for-profit businesses like his and nonprofit organizations, such as the YMCA.

One-time mandated statewide closures designed to curb the spread of the virus and subsequent limitations to reopening have dented revenue, even though the cost of staying partially open still has a full-time operating price tag.

Kurt Salquist, who owns CoreFit Inc., east of downtown Spokane at 225 S. Hatch, says he’s trying to stay in business in 5,500 square feet of space on just 25% of pre-pandemic income.

“Last month (July) was the first negative month in a long time,” Salquist says of his six-year-old club.

Average monthly membership at CoreFit is $150 a month. There, physical training methods include boxing, cross fitness, and Spartan race-style training. In fostering long-term relationships with his clients, he says he’s been flexible with those experiencing hardships as it relates to their monthly payment plans.

He declines to say what he pays on his monthly lease to his landlord. However, Salquist says any malfunctions that occur in the club’s interior here to be paid for by the business.

It’s one of the reasons he and his team of trainers have put together virtual workouts and taken clients outdoors for training in three of the last four weekends.

Exercise excursions have included backpacking, a golf outing at Downriver Golf Course, in Spokane, and a 28-mile bike ride along the Centennial Trail, he says.

“Regardless of what’s going on, we still prioritize people above all else,” he says.

As for nonprofit YMCA of the Inland Northwest, Alan Lesher, its chief financial officer, says operating costs in the midst of the pandemic are part of the panoramic view of challenges all fitness club operators currently are facing.

North of downtown, the YMCA, at 930 N. Monroe, is an 84,000-square-foot facility in which 54,000 square feet is operated by the YMCA and the remainder by the YWCA.

North of Spokane, its building at 10727 N. Newport Highway is 54,000 square feet. The Spokane Valley YMCA, at 2421 N. Discovery Place, is 48,000 square feet. And the Y’s South Hill facility, at 2921 E. 57th, occupies 27,000 square feet of space, Lesher says.

Altogether, the YMCA of the Inland Northwest is responsible for maintenance on 183,000 square feet of facility space, three of which have swimming pools that need to be maintained despite limited use, he says.

“You can’t let the pools fail,” says Lesher. “It’s a bigger cost trying to bring them back.”

Hot tubs and children’s play pools still have water in them, which continues to circulate and get cleaned by staff. A lack of ability to maintain adequate distance keeps those pools off limits for members.

The average cost of maintenance, which also includes cleaning and heating the pools, is $34,000 per month. The cost of pool chemicals alone for all three branches adds another $6,000 per month to the maintenance and operating bill, Lesher says.

Next to staff salaries, the pools alone make up the Y’s most expensive costs, he says.

At the facility north of Spokane, the pool and its surrounding pool deck occupy a total of 12,000 square feet of the overall 54,000-square-foot facility.

Even when the YMCA was closed to the public for the month of May, it still cost $14,000 to maintain the three pools, he says.

A worldwide organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, the Young Men’s Christian Association – founded 176 years ago – has access to resources that many for-profit fitness clubs don’t, he says.

Despite that, member associations immediately asked what could be done to cut costs at the outset of the pandemic as it related to facilities. One of the earliest instructions received from national headquarters was to not vacate the buildings entirely.

“It costs $200,000 per month to insure our facilities in Spokane County,” Lesher says. “Insuring them costs even more when they’re completely empty.”

In the event of a building emergency, insurance companies desire a staff presence to help mitigate problematic situations.

It’s why even before being allowed to reopen that employees such as Lesher, and Pat Estes, who serves as the YMCA’s branch executive, continued to work in the buildings instead of remotely.

Across the border in North Idaho, Grant Cox, who co-owns three fitness clubs in Coeur d’Alene with his wife, Jaimee Cox, says clients at StretchLab, Pure Barre, and Cycle Barre have returned in strong fashion.

He says business has been aided by the fact that Idaho relaxed its restrictions weeks before Washington.

However, what the couple has seen is an increase in the cost of disinfectants while spending more revenue on staff labor as it takes longer to sterilize the clubs after workout sessions are complete, he says.

“Pre-pandemic, we were spending about $200 per month per studio, and that’s about $300 per month now,” Cox says of cleaning supplies. “But it’s worth it. We don’t want there to be any question in the minds of our clients about the safety of our businesses.”

Back on Spokane’s North Side, Joe Campbell, who opened Titan Fitness three years ago across the street from NorthTown Mall, says his club reached a high of between 160 to 170 members before the arrival of COVID-19. Enrollment has fallen since then to 110 to 120 members, he says.

Despite the reduction in revenue, Campbell says the presence of the pandemic in the winter months would be harder to absorb financially.

Campbell pays $2,000 per month in rent for 4,000 square feet of space at 112 E. Wellesley. Utilities in the summer run on average between $300 to $400 compared with $1,200 in the winter, he says.

“It’s going to be interesting for us to see what the rest of this year brings,” he says.