Richmond, Virginia-based JF Fitness announced March 3 that it acquired the two Crunch Fitness locations in Jacksonville.
The gyms are at 13475 Atlantic Blvd. in the Harbour Village shopping center and at 9400 Atlantic Blvd. in the Regency Park shopping center.
“This acquisition represents a logical next step for JF Fitness,” JF Fitness founder and CEO John Freeland said in a news release.
“We’ve been eager to move into Florida for a while, and this is a tremendous opportunity for us to grow fitness in the region.”
In June, two private equity firms, Dallas-based Trive Capital and Maui, Hawaii-based 808 Capital Partners, announced they were investing in JF Fitness.
Trive has $7 billion in assets under management.
JF Fitness, a top-five franchisee for Crunch, has 30 locations in Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and now Florida.
JF Fitness said in the release it plans to reach more than 60 clubs by 2028.
New York-based Crunch Fitness has 425 gyms worldwide in 37 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Portugal, Puerto Rico and Spain.
The Jacksonville gyms were owned by Craig Pepin-Donat and franchise partner Chad Smith.
Pepin-Donat also is an author and “fitness rap star” Fitty Smallz, aka Notorious F.I.T.
They opened the Harbour Village gym in 2022 and the Regency Park location in 2023.
JF Fitness did not disclose the purchase price.
Crunch Fitness also has a location in Orange Park that was not part of the deal.