A Nottingham gym which has been running for more than four decades is under serious threat after the site it operates on was sold to developers. Castle Gym, which is believed to be the oldest gym in Nottingham, has been in operation since 1981, but now faces the prospect of leaving its home in Castle Boulevard after the building was sold by Nottingham City Council.
Owner Luke Willmott says it has been an "upsetting, troublesome time" for everyone involved, including the personal trainers and staff who work there. Mr Willmott says that the effects of the sale have been "massively detrimental" not only to Castle Gym, but to other businesses at the site which have run for more than 20 years.
The site was sold to Holloway Road (AGG1) Limited in March, 2021 and it is thought the company will look to turn the site into apartments. Mr Willmott, who has been owner of Castle Gym for 10 years, said: "It's been quite an upsetting, troublesome time really. It's kind of got to a point where we've done everything we can.
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"We've known about issues happening and the story is quite a complicated story to be honest. Essentially the developer has been playing some really underhanded tactics.
"We found out months and months after it went through that the developers had sold the building on. We were told we were all safe and that they wanted to keep the gym within the building.
"And then very underhandedly we were handed an eviction notice. They didn't offer us any help or support or any compensation.
"This is a gym that's been there 40 years - it's not a two minute job to be able to move our community that's presided in this building for well over four decades. There was no speaking to us or any communication.
"I was torn myself in the decision of what to do. I tried to find somewhere but obviously you can appreciate it's difficult to move a business like mine at the drop of a hat especially with six months notice.
"We've just come out of Covid which was detrimental for everyone really with mental health being so important. We're just in such uncertain times."
Mr Willmott also raised concerns about the effect that a potential closure could have for the wider community. He stated that many see the gym as a "saving grace" and somewhere to go to get away from the pressures of daily life.
The gym has also helped those who are sleeping rough on the streets of Nottingham. During the pandemic Mr Willmott handed out 1,000 bottles of hand sanitiser to those who were homeless.
He added: "I've been a tenant of the council for 10 years. We're a good tenant, we help and support everyone in the building and everyone in our local community, not just members but our wider community.
"We do stuff for the homeless, we do stuff with the NHS and we've done loads during Covid. It's been massively, massively detrimental to other people's businesses too.
"We've got our own problems and I wasn't able to stand up and fight for these guys as well - we're barely surviving help fighting them. The gym is seen by some as their only kind of saving grace of the day. It's somewhere where they can go for an hour or two hours and forget about the world. It's a safe environment.
"And for them to know that it's potentially under jeopardy and is risk of being no more I think is massively sad."
Personal trainer Adam Mansouri, 29, who operates through his Instagram page 'Adam.weightloss', also faces losing his clients and base of operations. Mr Mansouri, who has a three-year-old daughter, told Nottinghamshire Live: "It has made me really worried.
"I'm a single dad with a house and a daughter to pay for. We got through covid and all of a sudden there is this. You could not have asked for a worse time for it to be honest.
"People will always get rid of their personal trainers, we are a luxury. The biggest thing, what people do not see, is that we had [a number of members] try to commit suicide over the course of the pandemic.
"It is in one of the poorer areas, right by the Meadows, lots of people had lost their jobs and now they are facing losing their gym it will be the end of it for them. A lot of people are going to be in a dark place.
"As much as Luke has got an artillery behind him at the end of the day he is just one man."
Nottingham City Council has said that the gym was made aware of the sale in late 2020. A City Council spokesman added: “We sold the freehold of this property to Holloway Road (AGG1) Limited in March last year, which all tenants were told about in late 2020 before marketing got underway.
"The disposal forms part of the ongoing review and rationalisation of our commercial property portfolio.”
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