Crunch Fitness is expanding and struggling in the Valley. Here’s why

Crunch Fitness, a chain gym, appeared to be both expanding and struggling at the same time in the Rio Grande Valley recently, but the seeming contradiction is a result of franchising with different owners. 

Each year, the U.S. Small Business Administration guarantees dozens of loans underwritten by local banks or credit unions to first-time or serial entrepreneurs, many of whom open franchise retail locations — whether it’s an indoor gym like Crunch Fitness, a KFC fried chicken restaurant, or a burger/ice cream shop like Dairy Queen. 

Massive brands are a staple across the Valley retail plaza landscape; notable consumer brands often help local franchise owners secure high-profile plaza leases and ensure lenders can underwrite loans to small businesses to launch or expand. 

Sometimes those brand stores are corporate-owned, from Chipotle Mexican Grill to Starbucks, Dutch Bros Coffee, Sweetgreen, Cracker Barrel, and Panda Express, but many are franchises, which means that local independent entrepreneurs own and operate the business — often multiple locations — and pay the corporate brand a percentage of gross sales each month. 

For example, two different owners run the Crunch Fitness franchise model in the Valley, and there is a third in Laredo; the business requires an initial investment between $668,000 and $3.4 million, which does not include real estate-associated costs. 

A typical Crunch Fitness franchise is 20,000 to 40,000 square feet and includes at least 125 parking spots; it’s usually open between 5 a.m. and midnight, though some locations are open 24 hours a day. The operation is a high-volume business selling memberships for about $10 a month. Franchisees then pay 5% each month based on gross sales to the corporate office, another 2% of gross monthly sales to a centralized marketing fund, and $15,000 a month on local advertising for at least the first year. The nationwide club also charges franchisees extra fees for technology and management software. 

The larger operator in the Valley, which owns two locations in Brownsville, plus one in Edinburg, is expanding to Harlingen with the renovation of an old Conn’s Home Plus — a now-shuttered corporate store — underway. 

The multi-store Crunch Fitness operator is Orlando-based Fitness Ventures LLC, run by CEO Brian Hibbard. Fitness Ventures LLC scooped up the Crunch Fitness locations from Edinburg-based entrepreneur Rudy Alvarez in December 2025 for an undisclosed price. 

Records show that even the Harlingen Crunch Fitness was proposed just a few months ago to become an Ashley’s Furniture store, which is not a franchise but a licensing business model. 

Like many retailers, Crunch Fitness is also a tenant, not the owner of the building it plans to lease in Harlingen. That’s Clearview Harlingen LP, a subsidiary of Dallas-based investor and CEO Charley Pettigrew’s company, Clearview Investments, alongside his partner Michael Starcher and chief financial officer Chrissy Richardson, who operate the “boutique private equity firm” focused on real estate. 

Now, Fitness Ventures LLC is investing in the Harlingen location with the brand’s 3.0 design, which has lifting, group fitness, indoor turf space, hot yoga, hydromassage, babysitting services, and a sauna. It will be the company’s 18th location in Texas, with 118 locations nationwide across 30 states. 

The company plans to bring a “bigger and better Crunch to Harlingen,” Hibbard said in a recent press release, and is expected to begin hiring for its local workforce soon. The salaries range from minimum wage for entry-level customer service jobs to $60 an hour for the director of personal training. 

Meanwhile, the single-store operator in Pharr was unexpectedly closed for about a week by the Texas Comptroller’s office this month due to nearly $400,000 in unpaid sales taxes. 

The Crunch Fitness in Pharr re-opened by Sept. 11 after entering into a payment deal with the state over sales taxes. 

The Pharr location could have seen its assets — mostly gym equipment — auctioned off to repay the sales tax debts discovered by the state after an audit of the company’s financial records. 

The Pharr Crunch Fitness is co-owned by attorney Aurelio Garza, Ricardo Ramirez, and Navid Montazeri through their subsidiary RA’s Investment Properties, through Semper Fi Brothers LLC and STX Gym Pharr LLC. 

The gym leases space from Levcor, the developer behind Pharr Town Center, operated by president Larry Levine. Records show a lease agreement at Pharr Town Center that bars Levcor from renting to another gym or fitness center. 

Crunch Fitness Pharr’s general manager declined an interview for this news story, but issued a statement. Attempts to reach its ownership and lead attorney Garza were unsuccessful. 

“At this time, we have no further comment regarding the circumstances surrounding the temporary closure,” said Andrew Barbosa, general manager of Crunch Fitness Pharr. “The matter has been resolved, and Crunch Fitness Pharr reopened at 4:00 a.m. today, Friday, September 11. Our focus remains on our team and members. We are deeply grateful for the support and patience shown by our current members, and we are excited to welcome new members into the positive, welcoming, No Judgments community we have built here in Pharr.” 

It was not the first time the Pharr franchisee had received a notice of potential default or the gym’s inventory was at risk of being auctioned off to pay debt, public records show. For example, a past-due state tax bill in recent years was also reinstated later. 

In 2023, STX Gym Pharr LLC was reinstated by the Texas Comptroller’s office for meeting its state franchise tax requirements after being previously past due. 

STX Gym Pharr also had an administrative lien from the Texas Workforce Commission for unpaid wages and administrative penalties totaling about $700 in 2025. It also had a state tax lien from the state totaling $5,414, plus $1,733 to the city of Pharr, issued in October 2025 for the 2024 tax year. 

Texas Comptroller’s office spokesperson Kevin Lyons told the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal that STX Gym Pharr owed about $398,000 dating back to October 2025, which includes penalties stemming from audits conducted in September 2019 to April 2023, July 2023 to July 2025, and then again in September 2025. 

Nor does it appear that the Pharr Crunch Fitness franchise is operated by its founding leaders, who hail from Laredo, records show; rather, the business appears to have been sold in the middle of the Texas Comptroller’s auditing period. Records show the business was sold somewhere between 2022 and 2023. 

The Rodriguez family, Alicia and Miguel, opened and operated the Laredo and Pharr locations but now only runs the Laredo store. 

Miguel — who died at 75 years old in 2020 — was credited as a serial entrepreneur in Laredo, operating Rodriguez Pipe & Steel, Lone Star Steel, Rodco Steel Distributors, Bay Building Systems, and Crunch Fitness as part of his portfolio. 

It was not immediately clear whether Texas has provisions for what happens when a business is sold and whether and how its tax liabilities transfer; the Comptroller’s office did not clarify when asked. 

“The taxpayer has entered into a payment agreement with our agency and is able to resume business operations at the facility,” Lyons said on Monday. 

For now, the reality of franchising means that the exact same brand, which can sell memberships to the same region that is seeing an uptick in investment in fitness and entertainment retail, can both be expanding and struggling at the same time.