WICKER PARK — Cheetah Gym's Wicker Park location has been bought by Lakeshore Sport & Fitness, a small chain that also operates spots in Lincoln Park and the Loop, it was announced on Thursday.
Early Friday, a bus decked out with Lakeshore Sports & Fitness branding was driving around the neighborhood.
Scott Brdar, Director of Operations for Lakeshore Sport & Fitness, was onsite early Friday at Cheetah Gym, 1934 W. North Ave., to talk to its members.
"We are waiting for survey results from current members to see what they would like to see changed," Brdar said. "We will expand group fitness programs and reconfigure a lot of space that is overcrowded."
Brdar said that Lakeshore Sports & Fitness has hired all of the employees at Cheetah Gym, about 20 people, and are also looking to add new sales team members and personal trainers.
Brdar said that the gym's name will change, but no name has been decided yet.
"It will have Lakeshore in the name, but we have not determined a brand for [this location] yet," Brdar said.
About one block east of the Milwaukee, Damen and North Avenue's intersection, Cheetah Gym's Wicker Park outpost opened in 2002, one year after it was the setting for the 1st season of MTV's "The Real World," according to reports.
For nine years in the 1990s, the spot was home to Urbis Orbis, a popular coffee shop that shuttered at the start of 1998 when the cafe's owner blamed gentrification for losing its lease, Chicago Reader reported.
In October, Cheetah Gym, which is owned by Reza Toulabi, a prominent businessman who owns three Reza restaurants in Chicago, closed its Edgewater location. Cheetah Gym's only location left is its original Andersonville spot, at 5248 N. Clark St.
Toulabi did not return requests for comment about the sale.
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