Colorado Springs gym struggles to stay afloat without rent relief

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Rent is due today, but a gym in Colorado Springs is left with little to no options as they say their property management company refuses to negotiate rent.

"We've been here for 11 years and one month and we've paid about 2.4 million dollars in rent," said Duane Johnston, the owner of Accolade Fitness.

This week, he took to Facebook to say he requested rent relief for April. But Johnston says his landlord, Ruger Investment, LLC, and their management company, Griffis Blessing, suggested they take out a loan to pay rent.

"I proactively went to my landlord and let them know, 'hey, we're probably going to have some issues because we won't be allowed to open in April,'" he said.

Johnston says after 11 years of being in his location off Arrowswest Drive, he doesn't want to take out loans because he doesn’t know when he'll be able to open again.

"If it went longer than four months we would definitely have to take out loans at that point," he said.

Accolade closed their gyms on March 16 and will be closed through April due to the state-mandated order to shut down non-essential businesses. Wednesday, Johnston was forced to dig into savings.

"We mailed our rent check this morning and they should be getting it by hopefully Friday or Monday," he said.

The management company told KRDO they don't have anyone available for comment. But legally speaking, the property management company is under no obligation to negotiate with their tenants or to wave rent. While some cities have taken action to protect tenants, Colorado Springs is not one of them.

"We think everybody should be working together to solve this problem and it shouldn't be a 'your problem, my problem' situation," Johnston said.