Condo owners at the High Line-abutting Caledonia building are pissed off at Equinox right now. Well, to be precise, they're mad at Related Companies?which co-developed The Caledonia and also owns the fancy gym chain, including its outpost on the ground floor of their building?because the discounted membership written into their contract when they closed on their apartments is about to expire. That means as of August 31, five years from the first closing, the 190 condo owners in the Caledonia will pay about $136/month per person (still less than the advertised price) instead of the $49.50/month they had been paying, which is also the employee rate. Meanwhile, the renters in the building (those transient folks) pay about $100/month. There's no separate fitness facility in the ritzy property, so tenants have relied on easy access to the in-house Equinox. One tipster tells us there's "about to be a revolt!" (Exclamation point ours!)
Their main beef is not the extra monthly fees themselves (these folks live in multimillion dollar apartments, after all) but rather that the board at the Caledonia is stacked, 3-2, in favor of Related reps, who also live in the building, and that they, at worst, are blatantly biased, and, at best, just don't seem to have the rest of the owners' interests at heart. As the tipster reports: "It [the gym] was pitched as an amenity and a great experience, but at the end of it... the vice president of sales came back and said, 'We don't need your business. The gym is full of members... It's in the bylaws. We don't really have to do anything for you.'" Equinox has tried to sweeten the deal with a free personal training session, but the disgruntled condo owners aren't really having any of it and are considering boycotting extras like the spa, shop, trainers, and classes like Pilates, etc. Equinox, for its part, "would prefer not to comment at this time." Well, it's getting hot 'n' heavy along the High Line, that's for sure.
· All Caledonia posts [Curbed]
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