Digital Investigation: The Missing Gymnasium

In 2007, I moved from a remote area of California into the metropolitan area of Hampton Roads, Virginia. One of my goals upon moving was to find somewhere to swim laps. Shortly after my arrival, I visited a gym within walking distance of my apartment, walked in, and asked a single question: "How much would it cost me to swim laps in your pool?" Instead of giving me an answer, the representative behind the desk gave me a complete facility tour, then tried to hype me up on the value of Muscle Milk Bars, before finally giving me some sort of price list. I thanked her, left, and never set foot in the building again.

A few months ago, I was reminiscing about the incident, and couldn't remember the name of the gym. So, I tried to look it up, and found that it's gone. Wait... What? The building was on River Birch Run, opposite Greenbrier Mall from Greenbrier Parkway. But, as one can see from the current map that the only present businesses on that block are a Firestone Complete Auto Care, an MRI clinic that was under construction in September of 2007, and a retirement complex for senior citizens. I was stumped, and even creative Googling didn't help.

I finally found part of the answer: a literal missing building. Since it was on the periphery of a mall parking lot, Google Street View offered multiple angles on the building, revealing it to be a Bally Total Fitness. Remember those?

Well, apparently the company started selling off assets around 2011, and the chain itself ceased to exist by late 2016. A quick Google search failed to determine when the Chesapeake location closed.

This may seem like a really trivial thing to post about, but it had me really curious, and it ended up taking some modest sleuthing skills to work out. I also remain stunned that a perfectly good building wasn't sold off and repurposed, either by a different fitness company or some entirely different tenant. Now, all that remains is a patch of grass and a disused, presumably deteriorating parking area. That just seems strange.

As for me, I eventually started swimming, intermittently, at several branches of the local YMCA. I frequently ran into two major issues: seasonal electrical storms that forced the temporary closure of the pools during the timeframe when I was usually there, and high school swim teams that were allowed to take up the entire pool facilities. I probably could have adjusted my own schedule if my fitness had been a high enough priority, but it wasn't, and I didn't. Such is life.

PRE-PUBLICATION UPDATE: Oddly enough, when you start Googling "Bally total fitness," you get video recommendations. As it turns out, around a year ago, some guy back in Chesapeake made a video about this very Bally's location. Here it is...


... and the bottom line from a video that's about three times as long as it needs to be is that the building was probably condemned, and demolished in lieu of being rehabilitated into something suitable for another business to occupy.