UPDATE August 4, 2025: As of this week, RVA Performance Training has gone over 100 days without functioning plumbing, the result of a damaged line caused by nearby Diamond District construction. The issue began when a utility pole was installed just feet from the gym, rupturing the line. Since then, despite ongoing progress on the surrounding development, the gym has been operating without toilets or showers.
CBS6 covered the situation in a July 22nd article, highlighting the long-running disruption and the lack of resolution. On August 1st, the gym marked the milestone with an Instagram post reading simply: “100 days without plumbing.” The post thanked members for their patience and called attention to the ongoing silence from those responsible.
CBS6 received this statement from DDP:
“As soon as the issue was initially reported, Diamond District Partners (DDP) took immediate action to convene all stakeholders and investigate the cause of the sanitary backup affecting RVA Performance Training. Based on the investigation to date, which is ongoing, DDP did not damage the sanitary line and does not believe that it was responsible for the sanitary backup.
Regardless, DDP is actively working with all parties to try to resolve this problem and in an effort to help our neighbor, we have rented air-conditioned portable restrooms for RVA Performance Training while the matter is sorted out. Given the nature of those ongoing discussions and the concerted efforts to resolve the issue, DDP cannot comment further.”
Our original article from June 6th, 2025 continues below.
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RVA Performance Training is a gym tucked away in a warehouse district just beside the skeleton of the new Diamond District. There’s nothing fancy here. No $5,000 machines. No spa water in the lobby. Just the essentials: barbells, kettlebells, boxes, rowers, and rigs. You never train alone in this gym. The work is collective, the classes small. The coaches are always engaged. Everyone knows each other. A real fitness community, built from sweat and repetition. They provide free exercise classes for people living with Parkinson’s disease, called LiftPD.
Which is what makes the situation facing RVA Performance feel less like an accident, and more like an indictment of everything wrong with this city. HERE’S the story, straight from owner Jake Rowell, posted to Instagram on May 30.
“On April 23rd, our plumbing stopped working. As the new power poles were installed for the Diamond District, they were kindly placed on top of the several hundred foot sewage line heading away from our building. The landlord had given the developer a heads up that the line was there, but was assured by them that precautions were being taken. Shortly after these poles were installed, our plumbing stopped working.
They (the developer Diamond District Partners / Thalhimer Realty Partners, and the general contractor, Whiting-Turner) excavated around that pole and surprise, it goes through the side of our sewer pipe. They were communicative at first and assured us that they would be fixing the issue.
They have since changed their tune dramatically. They’ve let my landlord know that they are not responsible for the issue and will not be fixing it. We’re over a month in of operating out of portapotties, with no clear resolution in sight. Every time it rains, their sediment runoff flows through our parking lot. Construction dust fills the air around the gym and coats every square inch inside.
Without notice a new fence was installed, cutting off a significant portion of the alley to the point that the entire back side of our complex is now inaccessible by cars. I support some degree of growth in the city, but not at the cost of our ability to operate. RVAPT is home to a thriving, long established fitness community and to LiftPD, a nonprofit supporting people with Parkinson’s through free exercise classes.
Small business is challenging as it is, but we are now being pushed to the margins by unchecked development interests that have refused to take responsibility or offer recourse.
In the meantime, our landlord is working hard on our behalf to explore options. On my side, I’ll be raising as much hell as possible. Our members have been absolutely amazing through this, but we can’t (and shouldn’t have to) operate like this indefinitely.
Please share, send to someone with a voice bigger than ours, or comment a bathroom/portapotty related pun that applies to this scenario. The choice is yours.”
A shit show, literally. A shit show, figuratively. And somewhere in-between, seniors with Parkinson’s are left with porta-potties and construction dust.
RVA Performance isn’t the first small business to end up in this situation, and it certainly won’t be the last. Richmond’s recent history is littered with examples of independent operations pushed aside for developer interests: Broad St, Manchester, Arthur Ashe. It’s always the same story. A certain kind of money talks, and, as Rowell noted, everyone else is pushed to the margin.
This isn’t just a failure of leadership to protect our small businesses, but a symptom of something bigger. A city chasing development at all costs, where local businesses are little more than collateral damage.
But what makes it especially infuriating, is the continued message from the city touting its commitment to “a thriving economy (that leaves no one behind),” while simultaneously creating the conditions which let developers operate this way—unchecked, unaccountable. RVA Performance is symbolic of what happens when the city stops caring. When they stop caring about you.
Full disclosure: I’m one of the publishers of this magazine, but I also train at RVA Performance. This community has kept me mentally and physically healthy for the past five years. And honestly, there’s no point wasting ink debating the legalese of who’s right and who’s wrong. That kind of conversation only serves the developers. Death by verbiage. That’s how they wear us down. It pulls us away from what actually matters—the ethical and moral failure at the heart of this issue.
Instead, I want to tell you about this gym. About the people who show up. The coaches—Heather, Liz, Don, Riley, Cody (congrats), Adam, Megan, Jason, Josh, and Alex—who’ve spent years prioritizing diversity, focusing on inclusion, and helping us build confidence in ourselves. The LGBTQ+ community that trains here. The firefighters, rescue medics, police officers, and veterans I’ve met along the way. How they kept our bodies moving during the pandemic. How Rowell cut ties with CrossFit in 2020 after the CEO made racist remarks about the murder of George Floyd. How just last year, he won a VCU alumni award for the gym’s work with Parkinson’s patients, the same prestigious award won by Mayor Avula in 2022 (which is somewhat ironic).
When businesses like RVA Performance get squeezed, it’s not just one gym that suffers. It’s Richmond’s entire small business ecosystem. Coaches might lose their livelihoods. Nonprofits might lose their partnerships. Residents forfeit the spaces that keep them healthy, connected, and seen. What replaces them? Overpriced condos, franchise gyms, or a “neighborhood activation hub” run by a marketing agency no one really wants.
Between two water crises in under six months, runaway personal property taxes, affordability challenges, and tariffs—there’s not a lot of value for money in Richmond right now. The “build it and they will come” mentality feels increasingly rudderless.
RVA Performance and every other small, local business fighting these headwinds is where the real value in this city actually comes from. Each and every one of them deserve to have their story told. I just happen to have a front row seat to this story. These businesses are doing the hard work. They anchor our communities. They’re what makes Richmond, Richmond.
The city needs to take immediate action to remedy this situation and prove the mayor’s “priorities for a thriving Richmond” are more than just clever public relations. Short of that, it’s just more platitudes. More bullshit. And at a moment, when so much of this country feels like it’s being gutted by fugitive corporatism and political cowardice, Richmond has a chance to break the pattern. But it has to decide who it’s really for.
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