Crunch Fitness expanding on Long Island with at least 5 more gyms

Crunch Fitness is bulking up its Long Island presence.

The chain is growing on the Island, with at least five additional gyms, one of which opened in Melville last week, said Christopher Wierzbicki, a real estate associate broker at Pliskin Realty & Development Inc. in Garden City.

The other two Crunch locations will open in Long Beach and Patchogue, said Wierzbicki, who is the gym chain’s exclusive broker on Long Island. Two more Crunch gyms also are in the works the Westbury area and Suffolk County, but those deals aren't finalized yet, he said.

There is a high demand in the market for Crunch, but gym growth is difficult on Long Island because of a lack of large-enough spaces, he said.

“Every time it’s a decent-size space, it seems like it’s taken up by entertainment or fitness these days,” he said.

Crunch has reduced its minimum space requirement from 20,000 to 15,000 square feet, allowing for more flexibility with leasing, he said.

The Melville gym is in a 28,000-square-foot building at 121 Broadhollow Rd. Part of that building used to be occupied by Blink Fitness, Wierzbicki said.

The Long Beach gym will be 18,000 square feet. The gym is taking the space that a Rite Aid vacated, at 23 E. Park Ave., as well as two other smaller spaces in that shopping center, he said. The Long Beach gym is tentatively scheduled to open in November, according to a spokeswoman for Crunch’s corporate office in New York. 

Lewis B. Breslau is the franchisee for the Melville location and he also will own the Long Beach franchise, Wierzbicki said. Breslau owns five other Crunch Fitness franchises — in West Babylon, Bellmore, Amityville, Hauppauge and East Meadow. Breslau did not respond to a request for comment.

The Patchogue gym will be at 700 Sunrise Hwy. The gym will replace a Jennifer Furniture store in that 21,285-square-foot building, Wierzbicki said. The Patchogue gym is scheduled to open in 2027, according to the Crunch representative.

Michael Kleeman, who will be the Patchogue franchisee, did not respond to a request for comment.

There are currently seven Crunch gyms on Long Island, including one in Lake Grove.

Internationally, there are 569 Crunch gyms, including 517 in the United States. This year, 100 new Crunch gyms will open, the company said.

The vast majority of Crunch gyms are franchises.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.