PORTSMOUTH, Va., Feb. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Crunch Fitness today announces the opening of Crunch Portsmouth in Portsmouth, Virginia. The $5 million, 40,000-square-foot state-of-the-art fitness facility will open its doors in Summer 2025. Operated by Crunch Fitness franchisee Fitness Ventures LLC, Crunch Portsmouth will be located at 2550 Airline Boulevard in the former Conn's HomePlus building, creating a new fitness offering for residents of Portsmouth.

Fusing fitness with entertainment to make serious fitness fun, Crunch Portsmouth will offer top-quality cardio and strength training equipment, power half-hour circuit training, personal training, a dedicated group fitness studio, Ride cycling classes, a functional HIITZONE^TM training area with indoor turf, TRX®, tanning, HydroMassage® beds, Kids Crunch babysitting, and full-service locker rooms with showers and a sauna.

Brian Hibbard currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Fitness Ventures LLC, which owns and operates Crunch Fitness locations across the U.S. Crunch Portsmouth will be the Fitness Ventures LLC's 64th location nationwide and third location in Virginia, with plans to open 15 more this year.

"We are excited to bring the Crunch brand to Portsmouth. Crunch is for everyone - from the first-time gym-goer to the seasoned athlete," said Hibbard. "With a high-energy and fun environment, and memberships starting at $9.99 per month, we have options to meet everyone's goals and budget."

Crunch Fitness ranked #1 in the fitness category for the second year in a row and #32 overall in the annual Entrepreneur Franchise 500® - the world's most comprehensive franchise ranking. Crunch Fitness continues to expand nationwide and push the bar with innovative offerings for its members.

Prospective members can visit CrunchPortsmouth.com for more information about memberships and to sign up. The first 500 founding members to lock in the opening rate will receive $1 down and one month free plus a complimentary t-shirt, discounts on small group and personal training, and more.

Crunch is also expanding its team within the Portsmouth area and is looking for individuals who are eager to help their community experience fitness, wellness, relaxation, and recovery. Crunch believes in not only being the best place to work out but also the best place to work. Interested applicants can apply today at CrunchPortsmouth.com.

About Crunch:

Crunch is a gym that believes in making serious exercise fun by fusing fitness and entertainment and pioneering a philosophy of 'No Judgments.' Crunch serves a fitness community for all kinds of people with all types of goals, exercising all different ways, working it out at the same place together. Today, we are renowned for creating one-of-a-kind group fitness classes and unique programming for our wildly diverse members. Headquartered in New York City, Crunch serves three million members with over 500 gyms worldwide in 41 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and Spain. Crunch is rapidly expanding across the U.S. and around the globe.

SOURCE Crunch Fitness

The city manager was asked to assess the impact a federal funding freeze could have on Portsmouth's current budget and cash flow.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Portsmouth City Councilman Vernon Tillage says he is disheartened by the conversations coming out of the nation's capital right now.

At Tuesday's city council meeting, Tillage asked Portsmouth City Manager Steven Carter to assess the impact a federal funding freeze could have on the city's current budget and cash flow.

President Donald Trump paused federal grants and loans in a far-reaching directive that sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country. The memo, which was issued Monday by the Office of Management and Budget, had frightened states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington.

"A lot of money, it comes from the federal level to support localities," Tillage said.

He noted a presentation this week by the city's public utilities department detailing a 20-year plan to repair the water and sewage systems, which would cost an estimated $1.9 billion.

"And a lot of that is dependent on federal funding," Tillage said.

"You're talking about grants that are coming from the EPA. That's where your clean water, clean air grant money comes from," he said.

Tillage said FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants, or BRIC, help fund sewer programs and also may be at risk.

"When we sit there and we talk about the effect that this could possibly have on locality, it can be very devastating to a locality," he said.

The funding freeze could also impact community block grants, which can help a locality with different infrastructure projects, community projects and projects that help those individuals experiencing homelessness, Tillage said.

"You know everybody automatically goes the social aspect of it and you know a lot of people depend on this extra assistance that we receive, but it is a whole lot more," Tillage said. "Localities have to stand up and push back and let people know the severity this impact would have."

Tillage said he made his request because he wants to make sure city leaders are prepared in case funding is stopped.

"Is this going to be a cycle we are going to experience every quarter or the next four years?" he said. "And if it is, we have to have a backup plan because at the end of the day, we are accountable to our citizens."

Tillage says he is worried that city leaders will have to make tough decisions if this goes through, which he calls disheartening.

He says if the block on the federal funding freeze stops and the directive goes forward, then city leaders would likely have to make cuts.

"As a locality, you have to make the tough decisions on what is a priority and what has to be cut, and ultimately that's what's going to happen. We're going to have to make those tough decisions."

Tillage says a lot of projects are on a reimbursement basis, where the city funds the work upfront. There is confusion on the extent and timeline of the proposed freeze.

Huge plumes of smoke were visible over Portsmouth and above the Elizabeth River, billowing from a building with a "Custom Windows of Tidewater" sign.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Fire crews continue to investigate what caused a large Portsmouth warehouse to become engulfed in flames Wednesday morning.

Six hours after the blaze began, firefighters were still working to cool down hotspots.

Dozens of firefighters battled the large warehouse fire near Olde Towne Portsmouth in the Prentiss Park area of the city. Emergency dispatchers got a call about the commercial fire in the 900 block of Duke Street around 9:30 a.m., according to Battalion Chief Joseph Teartt with Portsmouth Fire Rescue & Emergency Services.

Huge plumes of smoke were visible over Olde Towne Portsmouth and above the Elizabeth River, billowing from a building near Chestnut Street with a "Custom Windows of Tidewater" sign.

As of 10:30 a.m., crews were still working a defensive firefighting operation, as the blaze was not under control. Teartt said about 80 firefighters were on the scene from Chesapeake, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and Portsmouth.

All exposed buildings and personnel and their vehicles were evacuated, he said. Columbia Gas and Dominion Power were notified and came to the scene.

After flames were extinguished later in the afternoon, crews started to focus on cooling down hotspots around and in the building.

Chris Goodwin's father was the owner of the warehouse. He said his father kept a large collection of things inside the building, including materials for rental properties the family owns.

"It’s a little emotional, it’s a lot of stuff. He likes to collect stuff. We've got rental properties, so this is a lot of the materials we use to work on houses. And it’s just all gone," Goodwin said.

Goodwin said once the property is safe to enter, the next steps will be to take out what can be salvaged and plan for a cleanup.

"We've got a long road ahead of us. There's long road ahead of us to clean up and recoup what we can, if anything. I doubt there's anything," Goodwin explained. "This is pretty much a total loss."

As of 11:30 a.m., more than 3,000 Dominion Energy customers had been temporarily disconnected due to safety.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dominion Energy said 2,000 customers have had their power restored. The remaining 1,000 customers will be without power until at least tonight, a spokesperson for Dominion said. This is due to the fact that the circuit for those customers "will need permanent repairs" including a new power pole.

"Once Dominion Energy receives clearance to work on the equipment, we expect to complete the work later tonight," the spokesperson said.

By 10:30 p.m., only 44 customers were left without power. Dominion estimated their power would be restored between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Thursday, but that crews would be working through the night.

Teartt said no injuries have been reported at this time, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

This is a developing story; check back for updates as they become available.

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — As forecasted, much of the region saw inches of snow Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning. Areas on the Outer Banks of North Carolina saw the most, with some getting more than half a foot.

Northern areas on the Peninsula and Eastern Shore saw only about 1-2 inches.

Below are the snowfall totals for the region.

Watch related: Historic snowfall in Florida

More weather stories

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PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Portsmouth rolled the dice and opened a casino two years ago. Since opening on Jan. 23, 2023, the casino and the city said the gamble has paid off.

The casino has welcomed more than four million customers during its time in operation. Virginia Lottery data shows the casino raked in more than $309 million in 2024, outpacing the roughly $250 million it made in 2023.

A casino spokesperson reports that through Rivers Gives, the casino's charitable arm, it contributed more than $1.3 million in charitable donations and dedicated more than 2,500 volunteer hours to support 110 nonprofit organizations. The spokesperson said those efforts helped the casino earn the CIVIC 50 distinction for two consecutive years as one of the most community-minded operations in Hampton Roads.

Watch related coverage: Rivers Casino in Portsmouth fined $545,000 for allowing underage patrons

"We are grateful to our Team Members, our guests, and the community for their continued support," Rivers Casino shared with News 3 in a statement Friday.

Portsmouth mayor Shannon Glover said that philanthropic work has been a great asset to the community.

"The casino has been the best partner we could work with," said Glover.

We asked him about the monetary impact too, especially since he said the casino generated roughly 20 million for the city in tax revenue in a year.

Watch related coverage: Is Rivers Casino Portsmouth bringing in out-of-state visitors?

"A big part of those dollars, in fact, we were able to give to our school system this past budget cycle $15 million and the other $5 million that was left over went to tax reduction efforts," said Glover.

He explained that the city was able to give a tax credit on the property/real estate tax rate, reducing it from $1.30 to $1.23, and was able to freeze other rates for residents.

However, the casino's last two years in operation have had some bumps along the way too. Between May 2023 and July 2024, Rivers Casino paid thousands of dollars in fines to the Commonwealth's general fund to settle several compliance and regulatory violations. Watch related coverage: Rivers Casino Portsmouth pays $275,000 for alleged gaming law violations

As Rivers Casino Portsmouth heads into its third year of operation, it could soon see another casino popping up nearby.

The Norfolk casino is moving forward. Contractors for the venture were finalized earlier this month. Virginia Beach-based S.B. Ballard Construction and Mississippi-based Yates Construction — which built Portsmouth's casino — are set to lead the construction of the future Boyd Gaming and Pamunkey Indian Tribe casino in Norfolk. They anticipate opening a temporary facility later this year, with the permanent casino opening in late 2027.

If you or someone you know has a problem with gambling, you can call 1-800-GAMBLER.