Gold's Gym coming back to Oklahoma
Gold’s Gym muscles into Tulsa, Oklahoma City
October 17, 2007
The Journal Record
TULSA – Gold’s Gym intends to build a network of seven to eight locations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa over the next two to three years.
The Irving, Texas-based industry leader, with more than 600 facilities in 43 states, has attempted to penetrate the Sooner State in the past through franchisees. This time “the Mecca of bodybuilding” will use corporate-owned locations to carve a long-standing niche in Oklahoma’s two largest metropolitan areas, although it may allow franchisees to tackle smaller markets like Enid and Ardmore.
“Oklahoma’s an interesting market,” said Chris Ezell, director of real estate development for Gold’s. “You’ve got two growing areas, as is most of the Midwest, but you have no major chains operating there. Bally’s had a location in Tulsa but it closed at the beginning of the year.”Gold’s will start with a 44,850-square-foot gym in a former Mervyn’s department store at 6612 S. Memorial Dr., just across the street from a one-year-old Wal-Mart Supercenter and the Woodland Hills Mall.
That project by Irving-based Cresta Development, which acquired the 77,000-square-foot Mervyn’s site this summer for $5.6 million, promises not only to deliver Gold’s, but 23,000 square feet of new retail space facing Memorial and another 8,984 square feet at its southwest corner.“This is one of the few developments that has actual Memorial frontage,” said Mendy Parrish, a Tulsa retail associate with CB Richard Ellis of Oklahoma. Parrish, who is assisting Cresta in leasing the facility, said the site sees more than 35,000 vehicles pass by each day.Using designs by Camargo Copeland Architects of Dallas, Cresta contractor The Marshall Co. of Corpus Christi, Texas, is working toward a March opening at the Memorial site.“We have several national retailers that want frontage,” said Jamie Weaver, director of development for Cresta. “We’ve gone to lease with three additional tenants and will have more to come soon.”
Weaver said Cresta is preparing to close on a corner at Kenosha and Aspen in Broken Arrow (that’s 71st and 145th in Tulsa street signage) for the area’s second Gold’s. It will allow for an estimated 40,000-square-foot gym and about 19,000 square feet of retail space, with construction expected to start in January.“We’re looking at three to four locations,” he said of Gold’s in the Tulsa area, including suburbs like Owasso.
Ezell said Gold’s is considering an equal number for metropolitan Oklahoma City, targeting Norman and Edmond as well as the city proper. Weaver said these gyms will feature a new, family-oriented concept.
As evidenced in the 40,000-square-foot Gold’s Gym that opened in July at St. Peters, Mo., the latest concept involves everything from strength training and cardio equipment to a basketball court, three-lane lap pool, spin room, Kid’s Club and a Cardio Cinema, where exercisers may watch films on a 12-foot screen with surround sound.
David Schnabel, president and chief executive of Gold’s Gym International, said that facility illustrates the firm’s evolution from traditional gym to full-service fitness club. Gold’s may choose other developers than Cresta to oversee some of this Sooner investment, Ezell said. Since each new site goes up at a cost of $4 million or more, this market penetration will not be completed in 2008.“Lord, no,” he said. “These take a while. Just the construction time alone takes, if you’re coming from the ground up, usually a nine- to 10-month deal.”
A demolition worker walks through the old Mervin’s building at 71st and Memorial in Tulsa. The facility is being renovated into a Gold’s Gym and is scheduled to open in March. (Photo by Rip Stell)
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