Staff fume over posh gym’s closure in the middle of the night,
Angry staff and frustrated clients are left with no explanation
Employees and members of a posh gym at one of Ottawa’s most exclusive addresses are confused and frustrated after the gym suddenly closed early Friday morning.
Members arrived at Soma Health and Fitness at 700 Sussex Dr. on Friday to find two handmade “Closed” signs on the door. Equipment appeared to have been removed from the club. A few brooms, full garbage bags, and boxes of files were all that were left.
Expensive sinks and urinals from change rooms had been removed. Even the three-dimensional lettering spelling the gym’s name had been taken off the walls.
The news spread quickly among employees.
“I’m more than upset. I’m angry,” said Michelle Bergeron, a physiotherapist contractor who worked out of Soma.
“I just think there could have been a better way to deal with this,” Bergeron said. “I would like an explanation as well.”
Bergeron was supposed to get a percentage of the business that she brought into the gym and said that there is money owed to her. She wasn’t comfortable saying how much exactly, but she did say that it was in the area of a few thousand dollars — the equivalent of one two-week paycheque.
She hadn’t tried to call gym owner Scott Duval as of Friday evening.
“I was told that he wasn’t answering his phone,” Bergeron said.
David Mangano, who owns Metropolitan Brasserie Restaurant in the same building, had been a member at Soma for a couple of years. Mangano said he had “no clue” about what he called a “midnight move” until he got a text Friday morning.
Mangano went up to look at the emptied gym and ran into a former Soma receptionist. The employee was later crying outside the building and said that she and other employees had planned a dinner for Friday night. The young woman said she worked parttime at the gym to help pay for university and she didn’t know what to do now that the gym had closed “out of nowhere.”
Mangano said he’d seen her do the front-desk job at Soma and knew she could do the same work at his restaurant, so he offered her a job to try to help.
He was not surprised that Soma closed, given their industry.
“It happens with these gyms. They’re tougher than the restaurants to run,” Mangano said.
Contacted Friday, Shawn Malhotra, vice-president of Claridge Homes, which owns 700 Sussex Dr., said Soma’s closing took Claridge by surprise and the company was trying to piece together what happened.
He would not say whether Claridge was owed any back rent.
Scott Duval didn’t return calls for comment on Friday, but the Citizen did reach his brother, Kirk Duval.
Kirk Duval said he was not involved in the ownership or management of the gym and couldn’t offer much in the way of an explanation on the sudden closure.
“I know a little bit about it, not having anything to do with Scott personally, so it’s not, unfortunately, under his control,” Duval said. “I had a long night as you can imagine.”
According to gym members who were at the facility Thursday night, something seemed to be in the works as early as 9:45 p.m.
Regular member Ben Watson saw eight men packing up equipment during his workout.
Scott Duval greeted Watson as he usually does with his regulars, Watson said.
“He told me not to mind the men moving equipment. He said, ‘There’s an event on tomorrow so we will be closed (then),’” Watson said. “He had a smile on his face.”
By the time Watson left just before 11 p.m., all the ellipticals, treadmills, and other cardio machines had been cleared out.
In addition to its high-profile location, next door to the Château Laurier, Soma had all the perks of an upscale gym: running machines and elliptical trainers from Europe, free weights with polyurethane-coated ends to eliminate clanging, and an airy room with huge mirrors for yoga, Pilates and other exercise classes.
The facility also offered personal training, massage therapy and nutrition advice.
Memberships weren’ t cheap. SOMA charged $115 plus taxes monthly per member, or $1,150 plus taxes for a full year.