[Updated] Reader report: Car crashes into Blink Fitness on Avenue A; driver flees

Several EVG readers shared that a car crashed into Blink Fitness on Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street just before midnight last night. After smashing the window to the left of the front door, the driver backed off the sidewalk and sped off. 

The gym was closed at the time, and there weren't any reports of injuries.

We're told that several people filmed the incident. The make and model of the vehicle are unknown at the moment. 

One reader, who only saw the aftermath of the crash, assumes that the driver was making a U-turn and hit the accelerator rather than the brake, lurching onto the sidewalk and into the window.

We'll update if/when more information becomes available. 

Blink is open this morning, and as of 7, the front window has yet to be replaced. 

Updated 

EVG reader Creature noted that workers boarded up the window around 11 a.m.

Updated

An EVG reader shared this video filmed immediately after the collision... the driver appears to have gotten out of the vehicle and inspected the damage before driving away... the license plate is not visible in the video...

 

Updated

EVG reader Chris Rowland shared these photos from inside Blink this evening...

... and there's a memento on the emergency plywood — the car's hood ornament...

Despite filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the local Blink Fitness outposts will remain open

After filing for bankruptcy on Monday, Blink Fitness said it may close an unspecified number of its 101 clubs. 

However, according to a report in Our Town, the 11 NYC locations, including on Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street and the NoHo outpost on Lafayette and Fourth Street, will remain open.

Equinox Group, Blink's parent company, is not filing for bankruptcy protection, per published reports.

Reported ABC 7: 

Around 25% of US gyms and studios permanently closed during the COVID-19 pandemic — roughly 10,000 facilities, according to the Health & Fitness Association, an industry trade group. Several major chains, including 24 Hour Fitness and Gold's Gym, filed for bankruptcy. 

Blink's bankruptcy shows the lingering impact of the pandemic on the fitness industry. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Blink temporarily closed all of its clubs, leaving it without revenue to fund operations. Blink said in its bankruptcy filing that it is still financially constrained by rent payments it had put off and was still trying to catch up on from the pandemic. 

The 98 Avenue A Blink location opened in October 2017 in the retail space of Ben Shaoul's luxury condoplex. 

Before the demolition, the vast retail space was East Village Farms. That building opened as the Avenue A Theatre in 1926. RKO operated it, followed by Loew's, and it closed in 1959. 

Bring back the Avenue A Theatre!