The Former Downtown Phoenix EDM Bar Track Club Is Becoming a Gym

The former home of Track Club, a short-lived bar and dance joint at Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street in downtown Phoenix, is swapping out club kids for fitness fans. The property is set to become a gym.

A post to Track Club’s Instagram account on Tuesday night announced the news, which read: “We are no longer a nightclub but [are] now going be one of Phoenix’s dopest gyms ever!”

The new business, which is taking over the 12,000-square-foot DeSoto building, will be owned by local personal trainer, fitness advocate, and nightclub manager Pasquale “Pat” Brocco, who also confirmed the news on his personal Instagram on Tuesday.

Brocco told the Arizona Republic he's aiming to open the gym by the spring. According to the announcement post on Track Club's Instagram, its equipment and design will be provided by Arsenal Strength, a Tennessee-based gym consulting firm.

The club's mezzanine level will feature abs and cardio equipment, according to Brocco's quotes to the Republic, while the ground floor will offer "heavier machines and weights."

Brocco will continue to use the name and identity of Track Club, which operated in the DeSoto building for only 26 days in October 2019. Envisioned as a high-profile “Vegas-style” dance music venue with a high-style bar in its lobby, its sudden closure after less than a month was caused by behind-the-scenes issues between its co-owners: local developer Chuckie Duff, EDM promoter Thomas Turner, and cocktail curator Damon Scott.

(Prior to its brief tenure as a dance spot, the historic property hosted a multi-restaurant food hall called DeSoto Central Market from 2015 to 2018.)

Brocco is leasing the building from Duff, who’s owned it since February 2019. Turner told Phoenix New Times via text message that Brocco asked permission to use the Track Club name for the gym.



A manager at neighboring downtown Phoenix nightclubs Bar Smith and Monarch Theatre, Brocco made headlines locally and nationally in 2016 after he shed more than 300 pounds with daily walks to his neighborhood Walmart. The former bodyguard parlayed his story (and the resulting fame) into a career as a bodybuilder and personal trainer known as “Possible Pat.”

Brocco got numerous kudos from friends on Instagram after announcing his gym. Not everyone was happy about the news, though. One Phoenix resident wrote in an Instagram comment, which has since been deleted, that he'd rather have Track Club return as a nightspot.

"We want Track Club back. Not a gym. We need places to dance once Covid is over," he wrote.