Trail’s Pride Gym and Performance Fitness are back in business.
The two gyms were permitted to reopen their doors on Feb. 8, after a fire code violations order closed the building at 1425 Cedar Ave. on Nov. 20.
“It was a beautiful thing,” said Pride Gym owner Glen Kalesniko. “It was nice to see people coming in, and it was finally positive news, everyone was happy. They were angry with what happened to us, but there was so much good support … the people were 100 per cent behind me.”
The building was closed by Kootenay Boundary Regional Fire and Rescue’s fire chief due to historic fire code violations that had not been addressed by the building owner, Ahmed Naqvi.
Both Kalesniko and Mark Allen, Performance Fitness owner/operator, were caught in the middle and have been unable to enter the building or run their businesses since then.
But on Thursday, KBRFR fire chief Dan Derby confirmed that Navqi completed the necessary work required.
“Like I said, it’s not something we negotiate,” Derby told the Times. “He completed the work that had been identified previously to get those businesses back in here.
“I can’t speak to why it took as long as it did, it wasn’t an inordinate amount of work that needed to be done,” Derby added. “But what we always said, there was work that had to be done to renew occupancy, and that work has been done.”
Allen and staff spent a day cleaning the spacious gym, and were thrilled to open Thursday, Feb. 9, while Kalesniko held his first Pride Gym class the first morning, Wednesday, Feb. 8.
“I’m totally relieved, happy, and excited,” said Allen. “We are going to open bigger, harder, stronger, and cleaner than ever.”
Allen recognizes that there are no guarantees that something like this won’t happen again, but he is confident the building will be brought up to code, and that the new owner will provide the necessary upgrades.
“There’s no guarantees in life,” said Allen. “But tentatively, the building has been sold, and there is a new owner, so it looks positive, and moving forward I hope things will be bigger and better for the whole building. To have somebody who will love it and make something out of it.”
Derby also added that there is work that still needs to be completed for occupancy on the first floor and will ultimately have to meet the current fire codes.
“The violations stay with the building regardless of who owns it, and so if the building changes hands the new owner will be responsible to address those violations.”
More than anything, both Kalesniko and Allen are humbled by a community that cares, some even offering financial and legal assistance, and to start a GoFundMe page.
“We are thankful for all the support we got from the community, our members, especially after the announcement was made that they are going to be able to come back in,” said Allen. “We were just flooded with phone calls, emails, and text messages about how happy they are to come back to the gym that they love.”
Performance Fitness is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Pride Gym classes have resumed, check schedule on Facebook or go to pridegym.ca.
“Thank you to everybody that supported us,” added Kalesniko. “It was great to see the army that was piling up behind us.”
Read: Weights idle, ring empty; Trail gym owners locked out of their businesses