25th Anniversary of Ballard Health Club

May 5, 2023

Dear Members,

25 years, wow!

I have been the owner of BHC since 1/1/2014. Not quite 10 years yet but I have been a “member” of BHC for all of the 25 years it’s been in existence since I joined about a month after it opened back in 1998. 

I became a tenant in the building in 1997 while trying to start a software company. I remember at times working late into the night in my office on the 3rd floor and hearing the music start up at the Ballard Backstage nightclub down in the basement where the Club is now.

Over the years, the little software company expanded from just me to over 35 people and we outgrew our digs at the Ballard Building. The company moved to downtown Seattle and a bit after that, I sold my interest in the company and was all of the sudden, kind of “retired” in my early 50’s.

After several years in this new life, I was working out one morning at my usual 10am time at the Club with all the other retired guys I now hung out with and received an email from Lowen, my old landlord. Lowen owned the Ballard building and together with his daughter, Sonya, owned and founded the health club. 

In the email, Lowen invited me to coffee to talk to me about “something.”  Since Lowen had never asked me out to coffee for the 9 or so years I was a tenant – I felt this really had to be “something.”  I thought to myself, it would be absolutely crazy if he were going to suggest something like me buying the health club. That would be nuts!.

So the story goes, I went out for coffee with Lowen and came back with a health club and that’s pretty much how it happened.  Lowen became my landlord again. We have worked closely this past decade as landlord and tenant through several remodeling projects and that annoying pandemic. 

I did not have a clue about how to run a health club, but really loved BHC in all the years I was a member, so my mission statement was pretty simple: Keep doing the same thing that Lowen and Sonya started, and just try not to mess it up.

So here we are. As I’m writing this, we are 5 days into the 2nd quarter century of the Club’s existence and, thankfully, I haven’t messed up things so much that I would not be writing this letter.

Thanks to Ivana and the rest of our staff for putting together a variety of activities to involve our members in celebrating our 25th anniversary.  Ivana created bingo cards, which include all the things people do at BHC. The more you fill them out, the more chances you have to win cool prizes at the end of the month.  The instant trivia at the front desk has been totally entertaining. 

I want to thank our Class Director, Marianne Clarke, for visiting with and inviting many Ballard businesses in our Discover Ballard – Scavenger Hunt going on all this month.  On the counter in many places around Ballard, you will find a clue to one of our Scavenger Hunt items during the month of May thanks to Marianne.

Cheers everyone and here is to another 25th years!

Sincerely,

Pat Gilbrough
Owner, General Manager
Ballard Health Club
pat@ballardhealthclub.com