Although each of West Park Shopping Center’s three largest retail spaces shown here have the same placeholder signage, in reality only the largest retail space at left is vacant. That will soon change as a new fitness center will occupy it (Onyx Creative). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
New fitness center to fill the void
A filing submitted to the City of Cleveland today revealed the identity of a new tenant that will fill the largest space at the West Park Shopping Center on Lorain Avenue at West 150th Street.
That tenant is Crunch Fitness, a national chain founded in a New York City basement in 1989. It has since expanded to more than 500 locations with 3 million members worldwide.
This shopping center, located in its namesake West Park neighborhood, will be its first location in Cleveland proper although it has suburban locations in Beachwood, Brunswick, Middleburg Heights and Willoughby.
Crunch Fitness touts itself as a “No Judgment Gym that believes in making serious exercise fun by fusing fitness and entertainment,” according to its Web site.
The filing is for city Building Department approval of a permit for interior demolition of furnishings and facilities for the previous occupant of a 34,364-square-foot space. That previous occupant was a Big Lots store; the national chain went bankrupt and ceased operations in February 2025.
Location of the parcel containing the three-store main block of the West Park Shopping Center, including the site of Crunch Fitness at 14767 Lorain Ave. Two other parcels at the upper left, Starbucks, and upper right, Aldi’s, are also part of the center. A Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen just north of the Crunch Fitness is not part of the center (BZA).
A separate file is in the process of getting opened on the Building Department’s Web portal to hold additional filings. That file identified Crunch Fitness as the proposed end-user of the space at 14767 Lorain Ave.
This activity follows the unanimous approval Sept. 14 by the Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals’ (BCA) of variances to several city building codes. Fitness centers are considered by the city as commercial amusement and recreation uses.
The property is zoned as a local retail business district but the code says such uses should first be permitted in a general retail business district, not located within 500 feet of residences or within 500 feet of another such use.
“I think it’s quite typical these days to find national fitness center users in a shopping center environment,” said Andrew Greene, vice president and director of design and analytics at property owner and developer TLM Realty Holdings LLC of New York City and Charlottesville, VA.
“The provision of parking, the size of the centers work well for that type of tenant,” Greene said in addressing the BZA. “I think it would act very similarly to a retail use which was previously there.”
Although the front of the three-store main block of the West Park Shopping Center is at right, the main entrance of the largest space can only be from the east side, at left, per the two anchors’ leases. Signage will direct Crunch Fitness customers to that side entrance (Onyx Creative).
He said his firm began marketing the West Park Shopping Center retail space for lease in September 2024, a month before Big Lots filed for bankruptcy. But just one type of tenant showed serious interest in the space.
“The only viable candidates for lease were actually multiple fitness center users,” Greene added. “So our inability to backfill this space with (alternatives to) what the market has provided will come at a pretty extensive economic hardship.”
However, the existing anchor tenants for the shopping center — Burlington and Ross Dress For less — require that the third, albeit larger space not have an entrance at the front of the three-space retail structure.
“The side entrance will be the sole entrance,” Greene explained. “Both of our other anchor leases prohibit using the north entrance that exists there today as a customer entrance.”
In addition to Crunch Fitness sign on the front of that building, there will be secondary wayfinding signage on the front that will direct fitness customers to the side entrance where a large additional area of parking is located.
West Park Shopping Center as seen in August 2024 from Lorain Avenue. The Big Lots store at left will soon be occupied by a Crunch Fitness, its first location in the city of Cleveland (Google).
Additional tenants at the West Park Shopping Center are an Aldi’s grocery store and a Starbucks coffee shop, both in standalone buildings located closer to Lorain.
A Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is on a Lorain property that is separately owned. It is surrounded by the land accommodating the shopping center, owned and managed by TLM affiliate Cleveland Ohio Center LLC.
Ward 15 Councilman Charles Slife supported the fitness center and the variance needed for it, according to a letter submitted to the BZA last month. In it, he wrote “This use is complementary to being located in this neighborhood and community shopping center.”
“TLM has been an active partner, engaging the community and responding to feedback,” Slife added. “They have been a good corporate citizen of the property and have expended much effort and capital to develop this property as an asset of the community.”
The West Park Shopping Center was built five years ago on the site of a demolished Kmart. TLM has owned the property since the mid-1980s, shortly after the Kmart was built and opened in 1982.
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