Ferndale Gym Owner In Limbo Over When Gyms Can Reopen

FERNDALE, MI — When Hillary Herring purchased the former Rise Athletics gym at 1150 Hilton in Ferndale earlier this year and opened Inner Stallion Athletics – moving from her previous location in Southfield — she was excited for a fresh start and to meet the members of her new gym.

But two weeks after the purchase, Michigan gyms were ordered to close due to concerns surrounding the spread of the coronavirus. After a long delay getting things started in Ferndale, a flattening of the curve representing coronavirus cases in Michigan restored optimism, and gyms were supposed to be allowed to reopen June 25.

But then another blow: A federal appeals court last week stayed an appeal by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to hold off on opening gyms. Now, the date for when they can reopen remains uncertain.

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For Herring, that uncertainty is the hardest part.

"The truth of it all is the hardest part is the unknown," Herring told Patch. "Like, not being able to plan from day to day (or) what the future holds. We have a full roll out plan for when we're able to go back into the gym, but just not knowing exactly when that's going to be is the hardest part."

Indoor fitness centers and gyms were required to close due to the coronavirus on March 16. Since then, the number of new cases reported daily has plateaued, but the state has still reported more than 64,000 cases and nearly 6,000 deaths during the pandemic as of Thursday.

In the Lower Peninsula, Michigan gyms remain in limbo. Such facilities were but hours away from reopening June 25 after a federal judge had ordered an end to Whitmer's order closing them. However, a 3-0 decision by a panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Whitmer's order late on June 24, taking the wind out of the sales for gym owners across the state.

The back-and-forth was particularly troublesome for Herring, who had just signed the paperwork to purchase her new gym. Herring and her staff were still settling into the new 2,900-square-foot space and getting to know their new members from Rise when everything came to a stop.

From Southfield to Ferndale

Herring is a lifelong Michigander, growing up in Detroit and working in Southfield and now Ferndale. She had owned and operated a gym in Southfield for over five years before finding out she was going to need to move.

A couple days before Christmas in 2019, Herring was informed by the owner of the building the gym was located in that they had decided to sell. For the next couple of months, she looked around for potential new destinations before finding the Ferndale location.

Herring said she was ready to get to know the people who had preexisting memberships to the gym before she bought it, as well as adding about 80 percent of the members from her Southfield gym.

"Walking into this whole situation, March 1, these are all brand new members to me that I know nothing about, that I was eager to get to know," she said.

The shutdown prevented Herring from immediately familiarizing herself with her new members. She lost around 20 members due to the pandemic, feeling the economic effects that coronavirus wreaked at small business owners around the country.

"The longer this shutdown lasts, the more members call, kind of one-by-one, and say, 'We've gone over a budget and decided that this is what we have to sacrifice,'" she said. "I've had a couple of people chase jobs out of town, so they've had to cancel their membership."

However, Herring said she was surprised by the amount of people who, despite struggles across the board, have held on to their memberships and helped sustain the gym.

"It blows my mind that they are still supporting a gym of someone that they don't even know," she said. "That is a blessing and it's humbling to see that we have so much support."

Staying Busy

Herring has kept busy since the gym was ordered to close. She said she took advantage of the last few months to purchase new gym equipment and freshen up the space with new paint. To keep members engaged during the shutdown, Inner Stallion Athletics began holding online Zoom classes — which will continue when it reopens — as well as outdoor classes in the parking lot with plenty of space to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

"We started off with just live content on our Facebook page, just for the members," she said. "They were doing the workouts that we posted every single day and then we would try to encourage them to, you know, post their times so that there was a little bit of friendly competition."

With Facebook videos and Zoom calls, Herring said she was adjusting on the fly to new technology she was not in the habit of using.

"I had never done a Zoom call, a class, or anything," she said. "So, that was all new territory for me what I was doing."

Herring said the gym went from hosting online classes that people could participate in from home once a week, but it quickly expanded into four days a week and continues to grow.

For now, Herring said she and her team of six coaches are doing what they can until they are allowed to open indoor classes completely.

"I'm not sure what the future holds, like when I can open, when I'm going to be able to pay, bills wise, and it hasn't been easy," she said. "I don't know how long this is gonna last, you know?"