Crunch Fitness on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, will close its doors permanently at the end of March 2026. The company announced the closure in an email to customers, citing its inability to reach a “favorable deal with the landlord.”
A Long-Standing Fixture with Recent Challenges
Crunch has been a fixture on the Sunset Strip since its opening in 1997. In February 2025, the steam room was closed due to inappropriate behavior. After a brief reopening, the steam room was shut down again, permanently. Around WeHo, Crunch Sunset had developed a well-documented, long-term reputation for sexual activity in its men’s steam room. After the closure, the gym reported many members cancelled their membership.
New Ownership and Expansion Plans
In April 2025, shortly after the February closure of the steam room at the Sunset location, the company was acquired by private equity company Leonard Green & Partners. LGP has embarked on a growth strategy termed Crunch 3.0, with plans to grow the Crunch Fitness brand from its current 550 locations to over 1,000 locations worldwide.
The Crunch 3.0 Vision
Crunch 3.0 is the company’s branding strategy that includes a comprehensive gym redesign and brand prototype to appeal to holistic-minded customers. The pillars of Crunch 3.0 include: a) free weights and Olympic lifting platforms as part of a “strength training surge,” b) Wellness & Recovery, which includes light therapy, infrared saunas, and Hyperice compression equipment, c) “Hot Stuff” option for franchisees to add heated studios, d) New Modern Aesthetics with upgraded reception areas and modernized locker rooms, and e) Digital integration of timers and enhanced lighting to create a high-energy atmosphere.
Leonard Green & Partners has an estimated $75 billion in assets. Some other notable brands under the LGP banner include Williams-Sonoma, TopGolf Callaway Brands, Petco, Chewy, and Signet Jewelers, to name a few.
Sounds like a good location for a sex club, bath house or “tubs” depending on your age 😛
Ok, here’s my take… I’m not sure if any of you were actually members??? Anyway, I enjoyed the stream room for the heat and there probably was some activity, but I kept a towel over my head. The very worst thing is when guys would over spray the “scent” in the steamroom or bring there own. I’m doing me… you do you! At some point, the steam room was closed and warning notices posted to it’s door that the steamroom would reopen in a week or two but would close permanently if the unwanted behavior continued. This to me was… Read more »
They will never find another tenant for that huge space. The landlord has not been making needed repairs for a while now. The complex will be half empty now, with no new tenants. It looks like they are trying to kill the location so they can tear it down and profit from the sale of the land. It will be another giant empty hole in the dirt.
This has nothing to do with the steam room, you cad.
I can see a developer turning a few floors into condos / apartments…to much vacant commercial space
Inappropriate behavior got the shower curtains taken away at the LA fitness gym on Hollywood Blvd too.!
so much for the peopole who actually needed privacy for their modesty. Sheesh!
It wasn’t all that long ago that gym showers were all in one room. Sports Club LA was the first I had seen with individual showers but there was no curtain or door, so modesty was not an issue even there.
I think I prefer the sense of camaraderie the way it was then.
So your saying you gained rights,just to destroy other people’s privacy and rights..! Sheesh..!
They’ll talk all day about gyms, even those in other cities than weho whill never mentioning a locally owned multi location success story
The term “inappropriate activity” is relative. I think maybe the complainers were really nothing more than homophobes or self-loathing, self-righteous gays who get off on their power when management responds to their complaints.
No. Just NO. Time and place, my friend.
I differ on this… and I worked out there. This stuff happens not just in this place, but in any place I’ve been too including the M East.
Perhaps it’s time to stop reducing men to hetero-normitive frameworks that relegate sex to something that only happens in a beige bedroom.
Headline is a lie. Explain how it’s closing in the midst of steam room sexual activity when the steam closed like a year ago? I miss WeHoville.
Because the gym reported that the members left after the sauna closed. Its good if you read the article and then comment.
I’m sure some did leave, but let’s be honest, it was a small dent. The gym was always busy with a lot of members. They were definitely just over the landlords. A story consistently here. Greedy slumlords that refuse to do needed upkeep. Then still likely doubling the rent. They did have both an influx when World Gym closed and then many left when John Reed opened. That said, I’m confident it was a net positive for Crunch.
Correction! After the steamroom closed. The sauna stayed open after the steamroom closed. If Crunch closed the sauna too, that was after I canceled my membership.
Yes I miss Hamburger Hamlet and the Gay Starbucks too. But Hank bolted many years ago and left this in the trash. I’m glad that it’s still going thanks to the efforts of Larry during hard times.
sure do
I’m predicting a bulldozing of the complex for a 2,000 floor tower
Would not be surprised especially once the furniture and movie theater closes.
I don’t see how this complex will survive much longer. With so many vacancies
I like how the author of this article is trying to blame the sauna for its failure, not the business parameters for the city of West Hollywood that has made everything difficult
The gym is not in the City of West Hollywood.
that building is in the city of LA, not Weho
Crunch in in LA
It’s not in WeHo.
You all are really splitting hairs. It is about 10 feet from West Hollywood and I’d guess 80% of the members live in West Hollywood. Businesses in both WeHo and LA are being pushed out by progressive leaders wrecking our cities.
They lost the Pink dollar, and went broke, Honey!
So sad to see another closure in WEHO
It’s not in WeHo
So you said! But I wonder if most its members were WeHo residents.
It might not be WeHo technically but it served the WeHo demographic
People aren’t idiots and know it is 10 feet from West Hollywood. It still serves West Hollywood and is in the central location of West Hollywood, serving both the east and west sides of WeHo.