The wait is over at Bailey’s Health & Fitness clubs in the Jacksonville area.
Stan Furlong, Bailey’s regional manager and director of sales, said clubs had lines of 15-20 members waiting to enter Bailey’s clubs at 8 a.m. May 18 after almost two months of pandemic shutdown.
Lines are not the norm for the 13 Northeast Florida Bailey’s locations.
Nick Denker, club manager at the 2485 Monument Road location, said they are back open 24/7, but without the children’s play areas and live fitness classses. Members have access to virtual fitness classes.
All but about 25 of the almost 400 area employees were furloughed during the closing. Bailey’s expects to be fully staffed again by June 1, Furlong said.
Staff performs around-the-clock sanitation, and club members are encouraged to follow social distancing, use provided hand sanitizer and wipes, and wash their hands frequently.
“All clubs have cleaning staff onboard and we have reprioritized some people for additional sanitation teams,” Furlong said. The club pro shops, which sell sports nutrition products, apparel and accessories, are closed every three to four hours for additional sanitation.
Furlong said the 50% occupancy limitation is not a factor given the large size of its facilities. At the start of the shutdown, members had to wait to enter when they were limited to 50 people in facilities.
“We were able to do some maintenance things that we were unable to do while actually open,” he said. “We took advantage and did enhancements to the facilities.”