LA Fitness

LA Fitness is a privately owned American health club chain with over 340 clubs and millions of members across 21 US states and Canada. The company was formed in 1984 and is based in Irvine, California.

The company’s stated mission is “to help as many people as possible achieve the benefits of a healthy lifestyle” by creating a network of sports clubs offering its members “the widest range of amenities and the friendliest service at an affordable price.”

The company's fitness clubs typically offer a variety of exercise equipment, swimming pool, spa and sauna, basketball and racquetball courts, group exercise classes including indoor cycling, personal training, and a babysitting service called "Kids Klub". Many locations also offer juice bars, which sell smoothies, drinks, healthy snacks, sports accessories, towels and more. LA Fitness also provides corporate wellness programs for companies of all sizes.

History

LA Fitness was founded in 1984 with one location in Los Angeles, California. Official records describing the company's history and growth are few. Through the mid-1990’s, the company expanded by acquiring under-performing fitness clubs in Southern California, and by developing, opening and operating newly constructed properties.

In 1995, LA Fitness designed and built a new multipurpose sports and fitness club that became the company’s signature model at the time. This prototypical design starts with the strength and cardio equipment, free weights and group exercise room that are found in most fitness centers and adds a swimming pool and court sports (basketball and racquetball in most locations) to offer LA Fitness members a wider variety of workout options.

With a successful prototype in place, LA Fitness then expanded its in-house development efforts, and new club construction now accounts for the vast majority of the clubs opened every year. In 1998, with 12 proven prototype clubs in Southern California and Arizona, the company rapidly increased the rate of new club development and began rolling out its concept into several new geographic regions across the U.S., including the Sun Belt, the Pacific Northwest, the Mid-Atlantic states, the Northeast and the upper Midwest. The rate of expansion was rapid, with over 180 new clubs added from 2006 to 2009.

In 2000, the company acquired the then largest health club chain in Atlanta and eventually replaced its 25 units with 14 larger prototype clubs. The company continued to build clubs in the Atlanta area and currently has 26 clubs in Georgia.

In 2007, the company expanded outside of the United States by way of an acquisition of six fitness clubs, in Toronto, Canada. Also of notable size, in 2010 the company acquired ten locations in Phoenix from Pure Fitness Arizona. Through March 2011, at least 5 of the former Pure Fitness clubs have been closed.

LA Fitness remains a privately owned company, with major ownership interests held by private equity firms Seidler Equity Partners, CIVC Partners, and Madison Dearborn Partners.

2009 Collier Township shooting

2009 Collier Township shooting, also referred to as the 2009 LA Fitness shooting, was a murder-suicide that took place on August 4, 2009 in an LA Fitness health club in Collier Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The attack resulted in four deaths, including that of the perpetrator who took his own life. Nine other people were injured. The fitness center is approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Pittsburgh, in a strip mall located near Bridgeville.

The shooting occurred at a women's aerobics class at the LA Fitness center in The Bridgeville Great Southern Shopping Center of Collier Township at approximately 8:15 p.m. EDT. The shooter entered the class, placed a duffel bag on the ground, turned off the lights, took out at least two handguns and began firing, police said. According to police, the gunman may have fired 52 shots before committing suicide. The handguns used by the perpetrator reportedly were two 9mm semiautomatics and a .45-caliber revolver.

Three women and the gunman died, and about nine other people were injured. The county Medical Examiner's office identified the three women who died as Heidi Overmier, 46, of Collier; Elizabeth Gannon, 49, of Green Tree, Pennsylvania; and Jody Billingsley, 38, of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania.