When Barbara Caldwell joined Valencia Street Muscle in August 2012, it was a misfit gym with a cult following. People came to lift dumbbells or practice jiu jitsu; the equipment was bare-bones, but no one ever had to wait for a machine. And monthly dues were only $40, Caldwell says, far less than other fitness centers in San Francisco. This past February she paid $395 up front for the year.
In recent months, Caldwell and other patrons started experiencing "minor inconveniences" — namely, if the equipment broke down, it would just sit there broken. Then, one by one, the machines began disappearing.
Evidently, Valencia Street Muscle's building at 333 Valencia St. had been sold, and gym proprietor Shawn Coleman had designs on a different storefront at 12 Valencia St. Unfortunately, he hadn't apprised his clientele. Member Kyle Caprista says that in early September he saw a sign on the door announcing the gym's imminent closure. On Sept. 15, it shuttered. Three days later, the owner withdrew October dues — normally collected Oct. 1 — from members' accounts.
"They put up a message on the website saying it was a mistake," Caprista says, adding that Coleman then dispatched former employee Hasad Freitag to handle customer complaints via Facebook.
"My whole thing was, 'You're a business, don't you have a bank doing this work for you?'" Caprista says. "Why don't you just go to the bank and reverse those charges? And couldn't [Coleman] have easily put his own contact information on the website?"
But Coleman had disappeared along with his business.
The gym never materialized at 12 Valencia St., where a "For Lease" sign hangs in the window. Reached by phone, the landlord there says he wouldn't rent to Valencia Street Muscle because its owner has no money. "They get money from people...and they go away," he adds.
When Coleman's clients finally tracked down his email, he insisted that the new gym hadn't opened because of mold, and that he hadn't refunded anyone's money because it was tied up in "extensive litigation with the new owners of 333 Valencia." (A spokeswoman for 333 Valencia property owner The Prado Group denied any such litigation; Coleman did not answer requests for comment.)
Coleman is, however, embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with a former partner. His business has also been suspended by the Franchise Tax Board. Caprista surmises that running a business "probably isn't his forte."
Meanwhile, Freitag maintains the Valencia Street Muscle Facebook page, which has become a scrapbook, of sorts, for the gym that once was.
That's little consolation for jilted gym rats whose next workout will be chasing down their money.
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