• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Gold's Gym Opens New Fitness Center -- but It's Still Not Quite Ready to Go

Posted on: Friday, 21 January 2005, 00:00 CST

Jan. 21--Gold's Gym opened its new O'Fallon fitness center Saturday with stacks of unpackaged equipment, no furniture in the locker rooms and a swimming pool brimming with construction material instead of water.

But its 40,000 square feet -- which the company says makes it the largest fitness center in the Midwest -- provides a lot more leg room than the storefront preview center that had previously been serving more than 5,000 new members.

By February, company officials say, the new Gold's Gym on Central Park Drive should be every bit the "fitness jewel" that was promised. A grand opening dedication will be held sometime in April.

Once completed, the new Gold's Gym will include a swimming pool with underwater music and aqua-aerobics programs; a half basketball court; a cardio fitness deck with state-of-the-art sound systems and plasma televisions; a group exercise room to facilitate more than 50 weekly exercise and dance classes; and Matrix X-Bikes indoor cycles.

The center also features a "Cardio Cinema," where feature-length movies will be projected on a big screen as members watch from their stationary bike, rowing machine, treadmill or elliptical trainer.

Gold's Gym originally targeted an October opening, but later pushed it back to Nov. 15.

Some members have complained that the fitness chain has started withdrawing membership dues from their bank accounts even though the new gym cannot yet deliver on all the amenities that were promised.

In January 2004, Gold's opened its preview center with limited fitness equipment at 1407 W. Highway 50. By March, it had more than 2,000 new members under contract.

Members were given the choice to activate their memberships immediately or wait until the new gym opened.

Jason Boone, an alderman in O'Fallon's Ward 6, said he opted to wait for the new fitness center because the swimming pool, child care center and fitness classes that attracted him to Gold's Gym were not available at the preview center.

Saturday, without notifying him that the new gym was open, Gold's garnered $21 from Boone's checking account to cover his first month dues.

"The new gym as it is now offers nothing additional to the preview center except maybe a little bit extra equipment," Boone said. "This isn't the facility I signed a contract to join and they shouldn't be charging me until they can deliver what I signed up for."

Troy Finfrock, an operations manager for Gold's Gym, said those who signed up for membership at the preview center are receiving a value at $21 a month.

Regular membership dues to Gold's are $34 a month and $24 for additional family members.

"That's an extremely competitive rate," Finfrock said. "But if they are that upset, our standard policy is that we'll freeze their membership for the next month's dues."

Those who still are not satisfied will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Gold's is open around the clock from 5 a.m. Monday to 11 p.m. Friday. Saturday and Sunday hours are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

-----

To see more of the Belleville News-Democrat, Ill., or to subscribe, visit http://www.belleville.com.

(c) 2005, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Ill.)

More News in this Category