Popular Fayetteville gym suddenly shuts down leaving members, employees scrambling

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- A popular gym in Fayetteville suddenly closed, leaving employees high and dry, eight days before Christmas.

Omni Health and Fitness members and workers came to the gym last night to find crews removing equipment from the facility.

"Wow, this is shocking, it's horrible, it's sad," said one member.

The gym posted an alert to Facebook notifying members that the business would be closing for good Wednesday.

Others who hadn't seen the post found out the hard way.

"I was driving by and saw the moving trucks," said Kimberly Williams, a member.

The sign on the door explained that memberships were transferred to "Fit4Life" on Owen Drive. That gym's management confirming to ABC11 that they merged with Omni and will be honoring their contracts.

While customers have options, employees and owners of shops inside the gym said they were left scrambling.

"We're just in a state of shock, you know. Everything is all abrupt," said Anthony Hill, owner of Heal Thy Living Nutrition.

ABC11 tracked down the owner and spoke with him on the phone. Greg Moseley said he's been battling cancer and had no choice but to close up shop.

"The rent went up. Payroll goes up. Utilities go up and my income went down. So it reached a point where I couldn't financially afford to feed it," Moseley explained.

Moseley went on to say that he told some employees a month ago about the closure. A source close to the situation told ABC11 that Moseley decided not to renew the lease agreement in the shopping plaza.

The owner said some employees will receive severance pay. He does plan to keep his two other locations in the South.

Meanwhile, Fit4Life told ABC11 that it has representatives standing by to answer any questions about transferring memberships and or canceling their agreement.