Retro Fitness acquires two Rapid Fitness centers - Triangle Business Journal

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Steve Wilson

Michael Rattenni, owner of Rapid Fitness, sold two of his fitness centers to Retro Fitness

Retro Fitness acquired two Triangle-area Rapid Fitness gyms, the companies announced Wednesday. Retro also plans to add as many as five new gyms in the Triangle in the near future.

Retro will acquire the Rapid locations in downtown Raleigh and North Ridge. Also, members at the Glenwood Avenue Rapid Fitness will be allowed to access any Retro Fitness location in North Carolina, while Retro Fitness members will be allowed in that Rapid gym on Glenwood.

The first new Retro Fitness gym will open in early 2014 at the Westgate Shopping Center in Durham.

Michael Rattenni^[1] , who owns and operates the Rapid Fitness gyms in the Triangle, is somewhat of a serial entrepreneur. In addition to owning various gym locations, he also owns a management company that operates fitness centers. In this arrangement, one company owns the physical gym while Rattenni, through a company named Triumph Group Management, operates the facility. TGM has operated all Retro Fitness locations on the east coast for the past seven years, so the two fitness centers already had much in common. Naturally, TGM operates the Rapid Fitness centers.

Rattenni moved to Raleigh from New Jersey in 2007 but actually didn’t have any plans of opening his own gyms. At the time he was happy simply managing fitness centers^[2] . But he didn’t find a gym in the Triangle that he really liked, so decided to open one himself: Rapid Fitness.

In addition, TGM also has a hospitality arm and operates Myst (formerly Krave), an upscale lounge in the Glenwood South area^[3] .

Bikram and Sonya Singh^[4] , a father-and-daughter team, own the Retro Fitness independent area rights and intend to expand the Retro brand throughout the state. Rattenni and the Singhs will invest $1 million for upgrades at the downtown gym that Retro acquired, and are planning upgrades at North Ridge as well.

Jason deBruyn covers Health Care, Higher Education, Nonprofits and Sports Business. Follow him on Twitter @jasondebruyn.

References

1. ^{^} Michael Rattenni (www.bizjournals.com)


2. ^{^} managing fitness centers (www.bizjournals.com)


3. ^{^} an upscale lounge in the Glenwood South area (www.bizjournals.com)


4. ^{^} Sonya Singh (www.bizjournals.com)