(Bloomberg) — The owner of the New York Sports Clubs chain sought court protection from its creditors, unable to keep up with debt payments after the shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Town Sports International LLC filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the District of Delaware. The move allows the company to keep operating while it works out a plan to pay creditors and turn the business around.

A number of gym chains were struggling with heavy debt loads even before the virus shuttered the global economy. With a loan coming due in November, Town Sports warned in March that there was substantial doubt about its survival. By April, the company was weighing bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported.

The filing comes after talks collapsed over financing that would have helped the chain weather the Covid-19 pandemic.

New York Sports Clubs began operations as a cluster of squash clubs in the 1970s before introducing exercise classes and expanding up and down the U.S. East Coast.

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