Brooklyn
Heart Walk
12:00 - 2:00 pm
COURIER L 10 IFE, AUG. 30-SEPT 5, 2019
‘It’s like someone
is passing away’
Sunset Park’s Richie’s Gym to close
END OF AN ERA: Manager David Vale is getting ready to close Richie’s Gym on Sept. 12, after
29 years of serving the Sunset Park community. Photos by Derrick Watterson
BY ROSE ADAMS
Patrons of a gritty, no-frills Sunset
Park fi tness center will have to pump
iron somewhere else beginning Sept.
12, when the gym’s landlord will give
them the boot after nearly 30 years in
the neighborhood.
The decision to close Richie’s Gym
— located on Fourth Avenue between
51st and 52nd streets — devastated fi tness
fanatics, who admit that some
of the equipment has rusted over, but
that’s exactly what they like about it.
“It’s very sad for a lot of people,”
said Brian Montalvo, a longtime patron
and current employee.
Richie’s Gym is stacked with two
fl oors of old-school cardio and weight
machines, many of which date back to
the gym’s 1990 debut.
Montalvo said he weighed 300
pounds when his brother turned him
on to Richie’s in 1997, but that the camaraderie
he found there soon had
him making daily trips to the Sunset
Park fi tness center — from his home in
the Bronx!
“They call me insane, but there’s
not a lot of places like this,” he said.
In January 2018, fans of Richie’s
were furious when a Blink Fitness
opened up just three doors down on
Fourth Avenue, threatening the more
expensive mom-and-pop gym with
the fancy pants fi tness franchise’s $15
monthly membership dues.
And, while Blink did cause a drop
in Richie’s membership, it was the
business’ landlord who ultimately decided
to boot the old-school gym in a
bid to court a well-heeled commercial
buyer, Richie’s manager claimed.
“He wants to sell for big money because
the neighborhood is changing,”
CLOSING: Willie Acevedo (left) and Christopher
Kuepper (right), mourn the imminent
closing of the Sunset Park gym.
said David Vale, who added that locals
had banded together to try to buy the
building, but the owner refused to sell
it to them.
The gym’s imminent closure has
been a blow to old-school gym rats and
employees, who say Richie’s acted as a
community center.
“It’s a business, but it’s also where
people form a bond and form connections,”
Vale said.
Montalvo claimed that he made
many close friends while exercising,
and said that the workout spot hosted
weddings for couples who met while
working out. The gym even inspired
an acclaimed 2015 novel , “Preparation
for the Next Life,” written by Richie’s
regular Atticus Lish.
“This is all we have,” Montalvo
said about the gym’s closing. “It’s like
someone is passing away.”
The Sunset Park location may
close, but Richie’s will live on in three
newer locations in Bushwick, Cypress
Hills and distant Queens that will remain
open.
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