Honorable Members of the Palo Alto City Council:

We, the undersigned, urge you to maintain a gym at 445 Bryant Street, the current home of Form Fitness.  Sassan Golafshan, owner of Form, maintained a thriving operation at this location from its opening in June 2005 until the Covid pandemic shuttered the business for considerable periods of time.  With the imminent closing of Form, downtown Palo Alto will no longer have a full-service fitness facility with membership open to the public to meet our community's wellness needs during this time of great health concern.  We, residents of Palo Alto and our closest neighbors, urge you to work with Mr. Golafshan to maintain Form as part of our community.

We believe a gym is fundamental to the downtown ecosystem and contributes substantially to 3 of 4 City Council Priorities:

• Community Health and Safety. There is no better driver of community health than a gym.  It has long been established that people who exercise regularly have better physical fitness, mental health, emotional wellbeing, and lower rates of mental illness than those who do not exercise on a regular basis
• Climate Change.  The facility — located in the center of downtown Palo Alto — can be reached by a significant number of residents and workers by foot, bike, public transportation, and other means that do not produce greenhouse gas emissions.  Without a local gym in close proximity, many people will be forced to drive to a gym in another location; others may forgo using a gym or stop exercising completely.
• Economic Recovery.  Unlike patrons of most businesses, gym members typically visit multiple times every week.  While downtown, many gravitate toward shops and eateries to pick up necessities, meet friends for lunch, etc.  With no gym to visit, these individuals will almost certainly spend their money elsewhere, perhaps in Menlo Park or Mountain View, depriving our local merchants of revenue and our city government of taxes.

We understand that City Manager Ed Shikada is soliciting a new tenant for the property.  We respectfully ask you to direct Mr. Shikada to work with Mr. Golafshan to keep Form Fitness as is, with new terms which will allow its success to serve our community for many years to come.  Additionally, we ask that you structure the lease's terms to reflect what a fledgling business — in an industry still greatly hampered by the pandemic — can pay.  

We have discussed terms that would allow Form Fitness to continue operating as a state-of-the-art fitness center and offer the city the potential of not only recouping — but even exceeding — the amount of missed payments incurred during the pandemic.

We believe these terms address all of City Council's key concerns in a WIN-WIN fashion.  As part of a renegotiated lease, Mr. Golafshan would offer major membership discounts to ALL residents of Palo Alto and to ALL city employees.  Additionally, Mr. Golafshan would offer the city a share of total gross sales as monthly lease payments.  WIN-WIN.

We ask you to move quickly to come to the table with Mr. Golafshan.  He has proven himself a successful entrepreneur by running profitable and beloved businesses for more than two decades in Palo Alto.  We are confident he will continue to do so for many decades to come.

We request the City of Palo Alto and Form Fitness sign a new 10 year lease with one 10 year option wherein:

1. The City forgives Form Fitness all past due rent, fees, and assessments for all time as these amounts were solely accrued due to government shutdown orders.
2. As compensation to City residents for forgiving these payments, Form Fitness grants all City residents and all City employees a 20% discount on all fees to join and remain members for the life of the lease.
3. Form Fitness pays the City rent of 15% of Total Monthly Gross Sales in lieu of a fixed monthly amount for the life of the lease.
4. Form Fitness pays all future property taxes and parking assessments for the life of the lease.