Dubai: Nine buildings in Discovery Gardens will see their common gym facilities closed but owner firm Seven Tides says it is searching for fitness alternatives to replace the lost residential services.
In the wake of complaints from tenants that fitness rooms are an important part of their weekly routines, the company said it understands some residents are upset and is working on a solution.
“Out of the 200 buildings in Discovery Gardens, 20 have gyms. Seven Tides owns 14 Discovery Gardens buildings of which nine have gyms and will be closed. As the landlord, we are conscious that there are a small number of residents using the gyms and we are therefore actively looking at alternatives for these people,” a company spokesperson told Gulf News on Thursday.
Seven Tides argued that the existing fitness rooms were being abused and misused.
“Seven Tides took a commercial decision to close the gyms as our aim is to always provide a safe, secure and clean environment to our residents and tenants. From past experience, we’ve had maids eating in the gyms, contractors sleeping in the gyms, kids playing in the gyms, non-residents using the facilities as well as vandalism to the equipment,” the spokesperson said.
The company said that according to a survey of residents recently, “the feedback was that very few people were using the facilities and therefore a decision was taken to close them.”
Seven Tides sent out a notice through Asteco Property Management dated June 9 notifying residents that the firm is “preparing to change this space to residential units”.
At least one resident told Gulf News he is unhappy that he is losing fitness facilities he has used for almost a decade of living in Discovery Gardens and said it was an important part of his weekly health routine.
The resident disagreed with the firm’s contention that the fitness rooms were vandalised or misused.
“The excuse given in attached notice is that there are unauthorised persons using the facility resorting to vandalism,” the resident said. As a resident living in one of their buildings, I can say that this is not true. There could have been occasional damage to the equipment because most of these are very old and seldom maintained. Even if there is misuse to some extent, why penalise the whole bunch of genuine gym users for the mischief done by a handful of people?”
The residents argued that he had paid for the services for the year and is asking Seven Tides to “reinstate the gym services” as soon as possible.
“It is unfair to take away the gym from residents, as we had paid for the services for the whole year, just because the facility manager could not stop unauthorised use despite having security cameras and paid security in each building,” the resident said.
