Bob’s Blog

Basketball Courts Closed/ Pool Bubble Coming Down

March 30th, 2009

FAC Members-

I have some good news, we finally have a firm commitment from a court refinishing company to resurface our basketball courts! GYMASTERS will be here beginning Wednesday morning April 15th and they will complete the refinishing, repainting and relogoing of the courts by Tuesday April 21st. Basketball and court use will resume Wednesday April 22nd.

We will reschedule busy basketball times such as early morning, noon and afternoon/evening pick up games for the Fit, Fun FACtory courts. The kids’ center courts are not regulation size but for a few days they are better than nothing. Outdoor courts are also available alongside the pool deck.

Also, one of the first signs that summer is almost here…the FAC pool bubble comes down begining Wednesday May 6th. Weather permitting, we can normally knock the pool bubble off in 2-3 days; we should be swimming outdoors by Friday or Saturday May 8th or 9th.

As always, do not hesitate to comment or ask me a specific question at bshoulders@fayac.com

See you at the club!

Posted in What's Happening | No Comments »

In the News

March 4th, 2009

Dear valued FAC Members-

We would like to clear up some confusion over the newspaper article last Thursday which announced the filing of a foreclosure lawsuit against the Fayetteville Athletic Club. This is an unexpected but serious turn of events that we are doing our best to overcome for our members and staff; please keep in mind, this is a legal matter, not a financial matter.

The lawsuit will play out in the local courts over the coming months. The “investors” that bought our loans from the FDIC, WLJ Partners, see FAC as a very valuable asset which Bob and Katherine Shoulders have built over the past 13 years. They do not own FAC, but they do own our loan, which gives them certain legal rights including a foreclosure lawsuit in an attempt to takeover FAC in a hostile manner.

Ironically, because of their financial interest, WLJ also wants FAC to remain strong and to continue as an on-going business. All of their hostile takeover plans are based upon leveraging more money from a successful FAC; therefore, you can rest assured that FAC will remain open for business. The program sign ups for summer and fall are currently in process and even in this adversarial relationship, maintaining the club’s financial viability is everyone’s common goal.

The lawsuit that was filed last week is between WLJ Partners and Bob and Katherine Shoulders. We will fight to remain the owners of a business we have invested all of our hard work and savings for the past 13 years of our life. We promise to do our best to keep the club strong.

The court room fights will be public and more articles and filings are inevitable. Whether we will continue to own and operate FAC is yet to be determined, but our plan is to make it through this challenge and keep FAC a locally owned asset of the Northwest Arkansas community.

Let us hear from you. Click Comments link below to comment or ask a question. As our blog is moderated due to spamming, you will need to do a very simple & easy registration, but you can still remain annonymous.

Bob and Katherine Shoulders, Owners
Fayetteville Athletic Club

Tags: in the news
Posted in Talk To Us | 11 Comments »

FAC in the News

February 26th, 2009

Dear Valued FAC members –

The Fayetteville Athletic Club has been a valuable asset to the NW Arkansas community since 1995. Our primary lender, ANB Financial (Arkansas National Bank) failed and was taken over by the FDIC in May 2008. We worked 24-7 all spring and summer with the FDIC and reached an agreement to pay off the loan in September of 2008. The local FDIC office agreed to the payoff, but the regional office in Dallas vetoed the new loan. Instead, the FDIC sold the loan in November to a New York investment group for less than half of the price offered by FAC.

For the past several months, we have worked diligently to reach a settlement with the current note holder. As everyone knows, the economy has taken a significant turn for the worse and securing bank financing in this climate has been next to impossible. Nonetheless, we were able to offer the current note holder a settlement that was $1.6 million above what they paid. but unfortunately they turned us down. Their response to our offer this week was to file a foreclosure lawsuit on our club. This is unfortunate and stressful; however, we guarantee our members we will explore all of our legal options to protect the Fayetteville Athletic Club from take over by an out of state company that knows nothing about Fayetteville and even less about health clubs.

Our intention is to continue to operate FAC to the best of our ability and in a manner that our members are accustomed to. Nothing will change. In the meantime, we will pursue all legal remedies to protect the club as a locally owned asset of this community.

We appreciate all of our members and vow to carry on. Please do not hesitate to ask questions; we appreciate any comments or concerns and we hope you would feel comfortable communicating with us directly.

bshoulders@fayac.com

Bob and Katherine Shoulders, Owners
Fayetteville Athletic Club
2920 East Zion Road
Fayetteville, AR 72703
www.fayac.com
479-587-0500 office

Click on the Comments link below to post a comment or ask a question.

Tags: news
Posted in Talk To Us | 4 Comments »