Chelsea Piers confirms more than 400 layoffs
STAMFORD — Chelsea Piers Connecticut has laid off 444 employees since its coronavirus crisis-sparked temporary shutdown in mid-March, the athletic complex told state officials this week.
The cuts at Chelsea Piers’ facility at 1 Blachley Road on the city’s East Side include 85 employees who have been permanently laid off, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the state Department of Labor. Another 265 have had their temporary furloughs extended, but they could be recalled by early September. An additional 94 have been moved to “layoff status,” but they could return later this year or early next year.
Affected positions include coaches, instructors and trainers in a number of sports and many other positions focused on the maintenance and management of the vast property.
“Once we are allowed to open our core businesses, we now believe it highly likely that we will open with a much smaller user base,” Chelsea Piers Connecticut Executive Director Greta Wagner said in the letter. “Therefore, we now feel that we must not only extend our temporary furloughs, but also move some to layoffs.”
Gyms in the state could be allowed to reopen as early as June 17, but Chelsea Piers officials anticipate a longer timeframe for their restart. On March 13, Chelsea Piers closed the Stamford center and its complexes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, N.Y.
“It has become clearer with the defined (reopening) phases, and the mandated wait periods between phases, that it could be several
more months before our core businesses could open,” Wagner said. “And even then, increasingly likely that we will experience a phased reopening.”
The Stamford establishment is not shutting down permanently, and “we are hoping to have a large portion of our staff return in time,” Wagner said.
Thirty-two employees remain active, making up a “core group” of maintenance and management staff.
“I spoke with Chelsea Piers, and I am extremely confident that they will be reopening parts of the facility with each phase of the state's plan,” said Thomas Madden, Stamford’s economic development director. “They have an aggressive plan to sanitize the entire facility and to ensure they are providing the safest possible environment for their users.”
Chelsea Piers is one of many athletic organizations in the state whose employment rolls have been hit hard by the shutdowns unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic. The arts, entertainment and recreation sector dropped nearly 15,000 jobs in the state in April, equal to 55 percent of its total employment in Connecticut.