After a few delays, LA Fitness in the Ballard Blocks building (map) opened its doors to the public this morning. It’s a massive facility — LA Fitness’ first “Signature Club” in the country — 58,000 square feet across two floors.
Most of the club is situated in a huge open-air room on the fifth floor. For starters, there are 92 pieces of cardio equipment, all with HDTVs.
The 25 meter pool and spa overlook the Ship Canal.
Full basketball court that also converts into a volleyball court.
The large weight room with 4 racquetball courts in the background.
And a childcare facility for kids as young as 3 months. You may have seen that big tree through the window while driving into Ballard across the bridge.
On the third floor, there’s a large aerobics room.
And a spin room. We asked General Manager Jim Gossler the reason for all the delays — some customers were told the facility would be open as early as December — and he explained LA Fitness made a last-minute change to upgrade to a “Signature Club.” The upgrade included building the majority of the facility on the larger fifth floor, instead of the third. The change also impacted the elevators, which had to be redesigned to reach the fifth floor. When the club was planning to open in late January, the elevators had to be re-inspected, which resulted in a two-week work stoppage.
By the way, the Westlake LA Fitness club will be closing, and customers there can transfer their memberships to the Ballard facility.
I joined on 8/30/09 just for the pool. I loved going to this gym for the first 2 weeks. But in the one month that I have been a member, the pool has been CLOSED for 10 days. Yesterday they said that it would be open today, and sure enough it is CLOSED. The pool is great, but if you want to rely on pool availability I suggest joining Olympic Athletic Club. I was deciding between the 2 gyms and was swayed by the 25 yard lanes and the skylights, but those don't do me any good if I can't swim in it. We'll see if they open it tomorrow. So far for $57/month this is a total rip off.
This place is a scam. First off, has anyone tried to cancel their membership? They set everything up to milk every last penny they can from you, it's a ridiculous process. With the other facilities that are around, I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO EVEN MY WORST ENEMY! The people there seem friendly until you actually start to use the “amenities” (if you can even call it that) you were promised when signing up. They tell you that you can bring any person up to twice a year for free to workout; what they don't tell you is, if your looking to workout with that person, you will have to wait an hour while they interrogate him/her. The guy actually told me, “Why don't you go workout while I take care of him?” As if I was going to leave him there to be harassed by this idiot.
I was told that I could freeze my account if I was leaving on a business trip or was going out of town when I signed up (I though that was great). I had to leave for a family emergency a couple months later and tried to freeze my account and guess what, it takes 20 days before the account actually get put on hold! I mean, what kind of BS is that. I have to pay for the month I'm gone before it freezes when I'm going to be back?
People generally consider me a nice, passive person, but I cannot keep my mouth shut on this monstrosity of a company. I am truly sorry to the people I recommended come to this “financial prison”, I mean gym.
what a joke, just like any new La fitness club that opens… nice at first then turns into shit… overrated.
Beautiful Pool!!! Poorly maintained. The sides of the pool are oily, they need to be scrubbed regularly. Also, there is no, I repeat no reason, for the cloudy water. It should be crystal clear. Finally, it is a Bromine Pool….why, I have no idea. Might be the only one in town. I understand Chlorine is toxic too, but I have never had problems with chlorine. If you want to do it properly, use UV light backed with small amounts of chlorine, I have been swimming there two months, and have to stop. I am having horrible rashes breaking out, every time I swim there. This is only recently, so something is different. You need to send the water out to be professionally anaylized. I talked to the manager of the club, and all I get is the feeling that they are doing everything perfectly, and it is MY fault if I am having rashes.
I wrote to LA Fitness membership services to cancel my Flexi club membership. When I didn't hear anything from them and the Direct Debit continued to come out of my account, I contacted membership services who told me that membership can only be cancelled by phoning membership services.acnee
I signed up in Everett back in the 29.99 days. I wouldn't do this club for more than that. I didn't even know Ballard had opened until I drove past it last Sunday. Nobody was even around to scan my card, so I just walked in. I have a regional club pass, so they better not ever try to charge me for the Ballard club, or I'd quit in an instant. I have to admit having TVs on every cardio is sweet, and the digital locks on the lockers are very cool. But otherwise this is just another LA Fitness (I guess towels are free, whoopie, they should be free at all their locations.) If you're going for the 30-dollar range, I recommend LA Fitness over the scum bags at Ballys or 24 HR. Since I live in Bellevue and don't want to spend $250 a month at the Pro Club, LA is my only choice. If I lived in Ballard, I would probably lean toward OAC, although I haven't been there in ages. I don't remember OAC being very cheap though, maybe it has come down.
Way back when, I recall OAC was a bromine pool – I think most are these days.