New owners of Oz Fitness gyms in Spokane plan upgrades

Two Washington state business owners who have operated gyms in the Seattle area have purchased four Oz Fitness locations in Spokane and plan to spend more than $1 million to upgrade the facilities and expand the operation.

Jeff Carlson and Chip Schwerzel are taking over local Oz Fitness stores previously operated by owner Ian Riley. The four gyms are in downtown, north Spokane, the South Hill and Spokane Valley. Not part of the deal is the Airway Heights Oz Fitness franchise.

The two operated 10 Vision Quest gyms in Western Washington for more than a decade.

Earlier this year they sold those gyms to Fitness International, which operates LA Fitness facilities across the Western United States.

The profits from that sale were used for the Oz Fitness purchase; no terms of the sale were disclosed.

They will rename the business as MÛV Fitness.

“Seattle was great, but Spokane is really our type of city: hard-working, blue-collar people that are proud of where they live,” Carlson said in a news release.

“We look forward to bringing back what we learned to Spokane while building super power gyms that offer a wide variety of fitness and sports training.”

Carlson, in an interview, said the main focus will be offer high-quality programs and remain customer-focused in all phases of the business.

The main change will be to add personalized training at the facilities, he said.

Carlson graduated from the University of Washington, while Schwerzel graduated from Washington State University.

The new owners said they will honor Oz Fitness memberships.

Carlson said the goal is to expand the MÛV brand, both in Spokane and across the Northwest. While they have a non-compete clause for now, the plan is to eventually expand into Puget Sound, Carlson said..