The 25,000-square-foot spa at the Claremont Resort & Club shut for good on Aug. 16 after roughly 25 years. Its workers' union is now in severance talks, and management says it will "reimagine" the space.

Sometime last year, when management of the hotel at 41 Tunnel Road passed from Fairmont to HEI Hotels + Resorts, the name on the century-old building got shorter. "Claremont Club & Spa, a Fairmont Hotel" became simply the Claremont Resort & Club. The word that came off the sign was Spa. On Sunday, Aug. 16, the thing itself followed it out the door.

The Claremont's spa is gone for good as of that day, ending a run of roughly 25 years, KTVU reported (external source, opens in a new tab). It was not a small thing to lose: 25,000 square feet with 32 treatment rooms, a eucalyptus steam room, dipping pools, and the mani-pedis, hot-stone massages and facials that made it a fixture of East Bay girls'-trip itineraries.

What "closed" means here is still being worked out for the people who staffed it. General manager Edward Roe, in remarks to KTVU, framed the shutdown as one of several "adjustments" at the resort, and declined to say how many jobs went with it. The property's payroll ran to roughly 500 people last year — around 300 of them full-time — with more than 200 covered by a union contract. Unite Here Local 2 is in severance negotiations with management on behalf of affected workers, a union representative told The Oaklandside (external source, opens in a new tab); she, too, would not give a headcount.

There is a quirk of place buried in the story that says something about the block. The Claremont carries a Berkeley address but sits inside Oakland's city limits, an Oakland public-information officer confirmed to The Oaklandside — meaning the hotel tax on every room, and until last week every spa treatment, went to Oakland, not the city on the letterhead.

Roe says the hotel is "thoughtfully evaluating" ways to "reimagine the space." In the meantime, members keep the tennis courts, the pickleball courts, three saltwater pools and locker rooms with steam, sauna and whirlpools — everything wellness-adjacent except the room that had the word on the door. The tower on Tunnel Road, open since 1915, still announces itself the way it always has. Inside, 25,000 square feet now wait to become something else.