Editor's Note: This article has been updated to clarify the nature of the job cuts and the employer responsible for the layoffs.
Sixty-nine workers at 43 former Blink Fitness locations in New York City have been laid off by cleaning service provider Knight Facilities, after PureGym — the British gym chain that acquired Blink out of bankruptcy in 2024 — ended its contract with the firm following a routine review. PureGym has since hired a different cleaning service provider.
The tally, 69 employees at 43 sites, was first reported July 1, 2026 by Crain's New York Business. That reporting also highlighted the NoHo club at 16 E. Fourth St., a former Blink that now sports PureGym branding.
Conversion and the business case
PureGym won court approval in late 2024 to buy a large portion of Blink Fitness's assets and has spent the past year converting dozens of New York and New Jersey gyms into its lower-cost, 24/7 format, per company filings and local reporting. PureGym's corporate materials cast the deal as a key step in a U.S. expansion push, while neighborhood coverage has zeroed in on the arrival of so-called entry pods and fresh signage at multiple locations. EV Grieve
The sites affected, located in every borough but Staten Island, each shed between one and three employees on April 30, according to state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings. The state Department of Labor published the WARNs on June 29, though weeks-long lags are common with the WARN database.
Pods, safety and the member experience
The tech-heavy rollout has not been seamless. The FDNY has raised safety concerns about PureGym's new entry-and-exit pods, and CBS News reported that the department issued violations at several locations after finding exits that could require an electronic device to operate.
CBS reporting also cites members who described slow or malfunctioning pods, along with viral videos of gymgoers briefly stuck inside while waiting to be released. It is not exactly the friction-free, swipe-and-squat future the company has been pitching.
What it means locally
Industry coverage has framed PureGym's conversions as a calculated gamble on automation and razor-thin margins, a model that can reduce labor needs as the chain scales up. Prism News and other trade outlets have noted that PureGym is expanding aggressively even as it sticks to a capital-efficient, tech-forward approach.
For now, New York gymgoers and workers are watching to see how the new format affects safety, staffing levels and the feel of their neighborhood gyms as PureGym continues converting former Blink clubs across the city.
