‘Is this real?’ Personal trainers find downtown gym stripped bare and shuttered | Local News
When Tobias Greenawalt arrived at work Wednesday morning at a downtown personal training studio, virtually everything was gone. All the workout equipment, the TVs, lockers, computers and phones, which were there the night before, had been removed.
The discovery came hours after clients and trainers received an email from i:Train Studio that the business was shuttered effective immediately.
According to the email, all clients would receive refunds for any unused training sessions paid for in advance, and staff would be paid for work already performed.
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The email included no other information about the sudden closure or the circumstances behind it.
“To come in and (see) everything just gone, it was surprising,” Greenawalt said. “Dumbfounded is another good word.”
The 34-year-old personal trainer, who started working at i:Train in April, is one of three i:Train trainers who found themselves out of work with just several hours of notice, he said.
Lockers removed from the gym had personal property belonging to trainers in them, Greenawalt said.
Jared Mizrahi, who i:Train listed on its website as its CFO, did not return a call seeking comment Thursday. Mizrahi owns PCI Auction, a Manheim-based company that specializes in auctioning restaurant equipment.
A staff member at Zamagias Properties, the Pittsburgh-based building manager, said the company learned of the situation Wednesday and had no additional information.
LNP | LancasterOnline has an office in the same building at 101 N. Queen St.
Owner
The face of the business, owner Wayne Mutata, said Thursday that he wasn’t able to talk about the situation. “Right now, I am not in a position to comment because we’re still trying to figure out a few things,” he said.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Mutata moved to Lancaster in 2005, according to a biography from the now-shuttered i:Train website. He eventually opened a training location on West James Street before moving to 101 N. Queen St.
Greenawalt said Mutata was a good boss and a talented personal trainer.
“Wayne was a really good guy. He always did right by me,” Greenawalt said. “He had a very positive outlook, was a very positive guy, always happy, always smiling.”
Court records indicate Mutata and his company had fallen behind financially earlier this year.
In March, Mutata’s company, ITrainwithWayne LLC, defaulted on a $50,000 loan from Members 1st Federal Credit Union. Under the loan agreement, law enforcement was granted permission to “take your money or other property to pay the judgment at any time” if Mutata did not challenge the move.
That same month, a property management company took him to court over a month’s rent payment, $1,500. A judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Murry Property Management Co.
Mutata’s company took out the $50,000 business loan in January 2020, weeks before the coronavirus pandemic closed many in-person businesses.
I:Train opened its doors at 101 N. Queen St. in early 2020.
According to an advertisement from I:Train that appeared in LNP | LancasterOnline, Mutata and Mizrahi had ambitions to start a corporate fitness business that would work in consultation with human resources departments to create fitness programs for employees.
It is unclear if that plan ever got off the ground.
In May 2020, Mutata shot several videos for LNP | LancasterOnline focusing on working out at home during lockdown.
The small gym could accommodate several people at a time. It focused on personal and group training sessions and fostered a tightly knit community, Greenawalt said. “I’ve had an overwhelming outreach from clients asking, ‘Is this real? I can’t believe this has happened.’ Everyone’s very sorry,” the trainer said. “There was a lot of love in that place.”
Greenawalt, of Lititz, said he is looking for a new space to continue working with his i:Train clients.
“I got into a partnership with everyone I worked with because of how invested I was,” Greenawalt said. “And they know I’m here to do whatever I can to help them feel better about themselves.”
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