LA Fitness will close the Kent Bally Fitness Club on Dec. 8 and transfer members to the LA Fitness club just one-half mile away.

Officials from LA Fitness have declined to discuss specific plans for the Kent club and referred a media request for information to the LA Fitness website. The website does not list plans for specific clubs.

But the Kent club, 1340 W. Smith St., will close Thursday, Dec. 8 and members will be able to use the LA Fitness at 520 Washington Ave. S., according to a woman who answered the Kent Bally phone on Friday.

Bally Total Fitness sold its Kent club Nov. 30 to the LA Fitness chain as part of a nationwide sale of 171 clubs for an estimated $153 million.

Chicago-based Bally also will sell its other Washington locations in Federal Way, Bellevue, Puyallup, Tacoma, Olympia and Lynnwood.

LA Fitness posted the following update on its website, including information that all Bally employees will be laid off but can apply for new positions:

“We’re pleased to announce that Fitness International, LLC, an affiliate of LA Fitness International, LLC, has completed the acquisition of 171 former Bally Total Fitness locations. You can find the acquired clubs now in our list of club locations.

Our objective in general is to make this transition as easy as possible for both the members and employees. We will be servicing all of the membership agreements that were acquired from Bally. The majority of the acquired clubs will remain open, but some will be closing before the end of the year. If we close a facility, we will transfer those members’ agreements to a nearby facility, either an acquired Bally or an LA Fitness. We plan to add new equipment to many of the clubs, and we also have plans to remodel, expand or relocate a number of the clubs to larger and newer facilities.

The employees at the clubs we acquired will no longer be employed by Bally, but we hope that they will apply for positions with us. We will do our best to find a spot for every qualified Bally employee who wants to be part of our team.”

Fitness International, LLC, an affiliate of L.A. Fitness International, LLC, announced Nov. 28 that it has agreed to acquire assets to 171 Bally clubs. The transaction was completed Nov. 30.

Bally sent an email to club members to announce the sale:

“Bally Total Fitness has made the decision to focus our portfolio of fitness centers in certain key markets,” according to the email. “As a result, we will be transitioning ownership of a number of our clubs, including your home club, to Fitness International, LLC, an affiliate of LA Fitness International, LLC.

“LA Fitness will take over the clubs it is acquiring and assume your membership agreement effective Dec. 1, 2011. As a result your payments will be collected by LA Fitness going forward using the same account as did BallySM. You can find more details on our website and at www.lafitness.com.”

Bally will continue to operate 100 clubs in several states.

LA Fitness has 20 locations in Washington, including clubs in Federal Way, Covington, Bellevue and Tukwila.