KS candidate faced lawsuits tied to gyms he owned. He says pandemic forced their closure
While Adam Turk served his first term in the Kansas State Legislature, he also faced several legal complications with two gyms he owned and operated. Those troubles, the lawmaker said, brewed because of the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turk, who represents Douglas and Johnson counties in District 117 of the Kansas House of Representatives, first assumed office in January 2023. The registered Republican is now seeking a second term and is running against Democratic candidate Brandon Holland in the 2025 elections.
Outside the legislative session, Turk owned and operated at least two gyms in Shawnee — Rite Cross Fitness and Toe2Toe Fitness — both of which have been dissolved, according to Kansas Secretary of State Business filings. Johnson County court records show that the businesses faced a foreclosure lawsuit and a lawsuit for violating a lease agreement.
“The experience was devastating to our family, our employees, and the members who had built a community around the gyms,” he said. “Our membership lost loved ones and then their support network all in this same time frame. It was truly devastating.” M
Turk told The Star in an email that the litigation came because they lost more than half of their members from 2020 to 2024, and they were unable to recover beyond the government-mandated shutdowns.
“Ultimately, the businesses were unable to remain open and the cases you see were the results of the untimely closures,” he said.
‘We held on as long as we could’
In January 2025, Nebraska-based Core Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Turk and his wife, Megan, for more than $100,000 in unpaid mortgage payments and interest for Toe2Toe Fitness LLC, according to court documents.
Toe2Toe Fitness was a boutique-style kickboxing gym that was primarily driven by a membership base to keep it operating, Turk said.
According to court documents, Core Bank and the Turks entered into a mortgage agreement in April 2018, with the bank providing a $178,000 loan to purchase the property on Roundtree Street in Shawnee.
When the pandemic began in 2020, state-mandated closures prevented members from using the facilities and, by law, the gym couldn’t charge people for services they didn’t receive, Turk said.
“The resulting loss of revenue depleted the businesses’ reserves and created financial challenges that continued well beyond the initial shutdowns,” he said.
The bank claimed that Turk stopped providing monthly payments starting around August 2024, according to court documents. In the foreclosure lawsuit, the bank requested that Turk pay the $100,000 in 12 months or the bank would take back ownership and sell the property.
“We struggled and held on for as long as we could and did so at great personal expense and sacrifice,” Turk said. “I went as far as getting several other jobs to subsidize the losses we were accumulating in the gyms.”
Driving force in public service
Shortly after Core Bank filed its foreclosure lawsuit, a separate company filed a lawsuit in March against Toe2Toe Fitness for breaching a lease agreement.
According to the lawsuit, Turk entered into a five-year lease agreement in 2017 with Enterprises Monticello LLC, an Overland-Park based company, to rent out a retail space on West 66th Street in Shawnee for Toe2Toe’s operations. In October 2024, Toe2Toe vacated the property without notice to the owners, and owed more than $50,000 in unpaid rent, according to court documents.
Turk filed for bankruptcy in June 2025 — halting any litigation from moving forward without permission from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas.
Despite the hardship, Turk said the experience motivates him to support small businesses and prevent similar situations from happening to others.
“This experience has been a driving factor in my commitment to public service,” he said. “It gave our family a firsthand understanding of how government decisions and economic disruptions that business owners have no control over can affect entrepreneurs, employees and small businesses.”
“That perspective continues to direct my work in Topeka.”
