Charlotte gyms, museums exult over easing of NC COVID restrictions, prep to reopen

Finally, businesses like gyms, bowling alleys, museums and aquariums in Charlotte and across the state that were closed for more than five months because of the COVID-19 pandemic can reopen Friday at 5 p.m.

Gov. Roy Cooper made the announcement Tuesday afternoon, moving the state into Phase 2.5. He initially was expected to make an announcement next week about moving into the next phase of reopening businesses that have been closed since mid-March because of the novel coronavirus crisis.

“It’s long overdue,” said Jon Sayer, owner of the F45 Training location on East 10th Street straddling the Belmont and Plaza Midwood neighborhoods.

He said the state never provided data to businesses like his to justify why they had to stay closed. Sayer called the closure orders “unjust and unfair.”

The new executive order is scheduled to remain in effect through Oct. 2, but could be ended earlier or extended.

Museums and aquariums will be allowed to reopen at 50% capacity and gyms will be able to reopen at 30% capacity starting Friday, Cooper said.

Also allowed to reopen at 30% capacity are other indoor exercise facilities, such as yoga studios, martial arts and rock climbing, as well as skating rinks and indoor basketball centers. Playgrounds will also be allowed to reopen.

‘Slow the spread’

The new order will also increase the state’s limits on mass gatherings to 25 people indoors and 50 people outside, Cooper said.

But bars, nightclubs, movie theaters, indoor entertainment venues and amusement parks must remain closed during Phase 2.5, Cooper said.

“We know that some businesses are still closed and that people are hurting,” Cooper said. “And the more we can do to slow the spread of this virus, the faster we can turn this dimmer switch and let everything open. The problem is if people don’t do things to slow the spread like wearing a mask and social distancing.”

In recent weeks, the state has seen key coronavirus trends, like hospitalizations and percentage of positive tests, stabilize or decrease, Cooper said Tuesday.

“We’re encouraged, but cautious,” he said. “Stability isn’t victory.”

At the gyms

Sayer said only North Carolina and Michigan have continued to keep fitness centers shut.

“We’re no more of a (potential) hot spot than restaurants that were allowed to open,” he said. “It gets to be frustrating.”

Sayer said he has been unable to pay rent three of the past five months. His landlord deferred the payments, which he will eventually have to pay, he said, adding, “It’s been very difficult.”

According to a state Justice Department letter in June, indoor gyms should be open to people who use them as part of a medical treatment plan. Some gyms in Charlotte and around the state had reopened over the summer despite the governor’s coronavirus order.

Orangetheory Fitness Steele Creek owner Chris Narveson said he doubts the gym will be able to reopen as fully as allowed Friday because it will take time to get employees scheduled to work again and put a reopening plan into action.

“I think we’re in the same boat as other industries that have been put on the back burner,” Narveson said. “It’s been kind of, pull your hair out and stress yourself out. There’s just not a lot of clarity in a time that there needs to be clarity.”

He hopes to see members return. “This is our first time that the governor is telling us to play offense – to work on our immune systems, to work on our bodies to help fight this (virus) off,” Narveson said.

An uneasy position

Hive Fitness Charlotte has been open during the pandemic with additional restrictions in place, like social distancing and extra cleaning, co-owner Josia Boling told The Observer. But the state restrictions still left him worried about his business.

“It’s uneasy for anybody to be in a position where you feel like the government could come in at a moment’s notice and take away your livelihood,” Boling said.

But he said gyms have always been in good shape to deal with a virus: “Anybody in the fitness center is already constantly cleaning. ... It wasn’t revolutionary for us.”

Museums

Charlotte’s museums were also eager to welcome back visitors.

Catherine Wilson Horne, president and CEO of Discovery Place, said she and other officials at the museum “are beyond happy” with Cooper’s announcement.

In a statement, she said the museum is working “to safely welcome back visitors,” and it expects to announce more details soon.

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in uptown will reopen at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 25.

Thanks to ongoing support of the museum from Bank of America, admission will be free that day and on Saturday, Sept. 26, and Sunday, Sept. 27.

A new exhibition will debut on re-opening weekend, 1 Cent Life, in the second-floor gallery..

Staff are adding “recommended physical and sanitary safety precautions” before the reopening, spokeswoman Hillary Hardwick said in a statement. “We will take our time to put final preparations in place.”

The Mint Museum, with two locations in Charlotte, plans to reopen with a free weekend Sept. 25-27. The museum will be open to members starting Sept. 22.

“This is the great news we’ve been waiting for over the last five and a half months,” Mint President Todd Herman said in a statement. “We appreciate the governor’s recognizing the special place museums hold in a community.”

The Mint will require visitors wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines and will use timed-ticketing to adhere to capacity restrictions.

At the aquarium

Charlotte-area aquarium Sea Life, in Concord Mills, has been open at a limited capacity for a few months, but now plans to reopen its interactive exhibits, spokesman John Sullwold said.

The aquarium will follow Cooper’s rule extending mask wearing to children as young as 5, and already uses signs to enforce social distancing, Sullwold said. He said the kids can practice hands-on learning there while Charlotte-area schools are still under remote learning.

“We’re really excited for these family field trips to happen,” Sullwold said.

Bowling centers

Paul Kreins, owner of Victory Lanes Events & Entertainment Center in Mooresville, called Cooper’s announcement “100% political” and “a joke,” even though it legally allows his bowling center at Lake Norman to open.

Kreins said he reopened on June 26, when Phase 3 was supposed to begin but didn’t. Kreins said he already had all of the proper social distancing, sanitizing and other COVID-19 preventive measures in place at the time.

On July 1, he said, a Wake County judge ruled in favor of the Bowling Proprietors Association of the Carolinas and Georgia in its lawsuit against the restrictions.

Kreins said his center is fine with Cooper’s order Tuesday in that it allows 265 people at 30% capacity in the center, but it should have been allowed to open months ago.

This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 3:15 PM.