Team Fitness

Dear Editor:

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Michael Liberato, and I am the owner and operator of TeamFitness.

We have three facilities, in Lake Stevens, Snohomish, and for the past 15 months, in your lovely town of Stanwood.

A little background on me: I do not come from money and I didn’t open a fitness center because I like to work out.

To work out and to prosper financially are both selfish acts.

Do I workout? Of course, religiously, it’s my sanity. Someday would I like to make money at this? Of course, just like every other entrepreneur, I would like to not worry about finances.

Let us now address the fitness business in Stanwood.

After the owner of Port Susan Athletic Club purchased Stanwood/Camano Fitness and sold to a new owner, who then purchased The Sports Club, the owner of the properties approached me to help save fitness in Stanwood.

He is my landlord in Lake Stevens. I sat down with him and came up with a mutuallyacceptable agreement.

Some of the details in this agreement were that I would fix the internal structures of the gym (what you never see), and the culture of the clubs (what you see).

I was confident that I could do this.

With these negotiations I agreed to run by the landlord every capital expenditure for approval and trade off in rent savings.

After running the clubs for eight months on a shoestring budget, I came to the conclusion with the landlord that both clubs could not coexist in this town.

Even though we had made great strides in our goals financially, we needed to combine the clubs. We came up with a game plan and took action.

I then met with the landlord and contractors, got sketches, they met with the mayor, and the landlord signed a contract with the construction company.

There were stipulations on me by the landlord that I close the downtown club on the weekends, and that I must ask the tennis members to increase their dues.

From what I was told, this construction was a done deal. At this point I unveiled the vision to the members.

This is where it starts to get blurry and I made mistakes. I should have been involved more in these negotiations.

Then a month ago, the landlord told me that I must close the downtown club at the end of the week.

This was not my idea, but we tried to come up with the best solution with an auxiliary weight room, with as much equipment as possible.

Our current status now, as far as I know, is our original plans have been denied with no chance of fixing the issues. I have been informed that the landlord is currently looking at several alternative options for the expansion.

I appreciate all of our members’ patience.

I understand change is trying and the town has been pushed to the limit with the constant changes over the years. I just ask you to stick with us and have patience, as we make the best out of this move.

We are nowhere close to being done with the improvements of the sport location, but I have ordered the opening windows and talked to a plumber about shower issues. We just got our pool pump fixed.

I look forward to a future of fitness in Stanwood.

I’m available by e-mail at Mike@TeamFitness.info or at 425-397-TEAM (8326).

Mike Liberato Lake Stevens