The GoodLife fitness gym chain is pulling out of the Island market.
Staff at the chain’s last location in Victoria announced a closing date of Aug. 30 for the longtime fourth-floor Bay Centre tenant.
“Thank you to our Victoria Members for the good times and great workouts, and for supporting the Victoria Bay Centre Club for over 14 years of operations,” said a statement on social media.
Staff said that all memberships will be automatically cancelled following the last day of operation.
The London, Ont.-founded fitness club chain’s Island flagship location previously at Vic West’s Upper Harbour Place II building shuttered in 2019.
The company says it has more than 200 gyms operating across Canada.
GoodLife was the title sponsor of the Victoria Marathon from 2011 to 2019.
Bug Zoo workers have first contract
Workers at Victoria Bug Zoo have agreed to their first collective agreement after they voted to unionize in 2022.
MoveUP vice-president Christy Slusarenko said the first agreement is often the hardest. “We’re honestly very proud to achieve this collective agreement with the Victoria Bug Zoo.”
As a result of the agreement, the zoo’s 12 employees will no longer be paid minimum wage and will instead start at an hourly salary of $21.
“It’s been a journey to get here, but we’re excited for the future,” Alyssa Allen, a Bug Zoo employee and bargaining committee member, said in a statement.
The agreement stipulates limits to the lengths of touring shifts, establishment of an occupational health and safety committee, and “reduced surveillance in employee-only areas.”
Slusarenko said that employee surveillance had been an ongoing concern though she did go into specifics.
However, now that there’s a collective agreement, workers will able to address that concern through appropriate channels, she said.
Good demand for retail renting
New developments in Colwood’s Royal Bay area, such as Arbutus Landing, are experiencing high demand in nearly all leasing formats, including large format retail, quick-service restaurants, as well as retail and service spaces, Jeff Lougheed, a vice-president with CBRE handling retail space in the capital region, said in a report.
Some long-standing retailers have shut down on Johnson Street. But overall, the market has picked up and downtown foot traffic is expected to reach record highs due to the large number of tourists arriving on cruise ships, the report said.
Asking rates for commercial strip malls, mixed-use suburban retail spaces, as well as commercial leases on Government and Johnson streets have all increased in the past six months, a CBRE survey found.
The highest prices in the region remain in the downtown core, with net asking monthly rental rates of $65 to $100 per square foot for retail space on Government Street.
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