Fort Washington Office Park may get luxury fitness center

Upper Dublin >> Life Time Fitness, a high-end fitness center geared toward families, could be coming to the Fort Washington Office Park.

A sketch plan for a 113,000-square-foot fitness center, adjacent 53,000-square-foot outdoor pool with bistro and 604 parking spaces on 14.5 acres at the corner of Commerce and Delaware drives was presented at the Feb. 17 Upper Dublin Planning Commission meeting.

The brick, stone and glass, two-story building, with a 56,474-square-foot footprint, would house a fitness floor with more than 400 pieces of equipment, an indoor pool, caf, spa and salon and lounge areas.

The proposed facility would be a first in Pennsylvania for Life Time Fitness, a luxury health and fitness company operating 114 locations in 26 states. The closest, the 115th, is currently under construction in Mount Laurel, N.J.

We feel it would be a real boon to the Fort Washington Office Park, said Marc Jonas, the attorney representing the Minnesota-based company. Its a facility unlike anything weve ever seen.

Life Time Senior Development Manager Aaron Koehler said the company focuses on young families and was the first to move to a month-to-month contract. Numerous programs and classes are offered for adults and children you name it, weve got it as well as cycling and running clubs, he said. It also sponsors athletic events for all ages and abilities.

The company has a charitable arm that has worked with some schools on nutrition education and subsidized school lunch programs, Koehler said.

Life Time Fitness is able to compete with the Y and other fitness centers, he said, as we operate at a higher price point attract a different crowd. We tend to capture more families and expect 85 percent of members to be within a 20-minute drive and 60 percent within a 12-minute drive, he said.

For a family, the first member is $99/month, the second $85, the third $75, the fourth $60 and after that its free, Koehler said. The goal is a 7,000 membership.

The company investigated quite a while before choosing the office park location to determine who is within those drive times, he said. There are residents within the area with the income to fill our facility. Continued...

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Fort Washington Office Park may get luxury fitness center