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Dec 24

Expert: A big fitness center is realistic – Clinton Herald

Fitness Comments Off on Expert: A big fitness center is realistic – Clinton Herald

DEWITT DeWitt is a compelling potential location for a state of the art fitness and wellness care facility, an expert told officials last week.

During a joint meeting of the DeWitt City Council and the Central DeWitt Community School Board, Donna Jarmusz, the president of IBIS Enterprises, relayed the results of a comprehensive market analysis of the area encompassing a 20-mile radius around DeWitt.

Its true: State of the art is a relative term. DeWitt can hold off on that application to host the next Summer Olympics. But if one studies the demographics, a large and dynamic facility is not tilting at windmills, Jarmusz said.

If it were to ever become a reality, it would be quite a draw for your community, Jarmusz said during a subsequent phone interview.

This comes from the leader of a company that has gone a perfect 26-of-26 in accurately predicting the behavior of the markets where freestanding fitness and wellness centers were built.

Whenever I go and speak before prospective clients, someone will say, You have all these fabulous projects on your website; tell us about the ones that have failed, she said. And I say, None, zero. And thats how we want to keep it. Were very proud of that, and we want all sides to win.

As it stands now, IBIS does not have a vested interest in seeing the project go forward. Although IBIS sometimes is asked to provide consulting for fundraising campaigns in relation to these projects, she said her only job right now is to present the unvarnished truth.

The city and the school district have dovetailing interests to enhance the areas fitness and wellness opportunities, particularly during the winter months. Meanwhile, IBIS has had numerous discussions with Genesis Health System and Rock Valley Personal Training, who are extremely interested in being involved in the project. She said it is far too early to discuss what that involvement might look like for Genesis and Rock Valley.

Its hard to make any kind of decisions when you dont know when and if this is going to be a real project, she said.

The initial vision presented to the city and the school board is one that incorporates the wish lists of nearly 40 local residents who were interviewed in depth by IBIS employees.

The initial conceptual drawings call for a 127,520-square-foot facility. In the drawings, 62,080 square feet of the facility would be dedicated to an air structure that would accommodate amenities such as a 200-meter, six-lane indoor track, a full-sized basketball court, an open turf area, spectator seating, pickleball courts and batting cages for baseball and softball.

The other half of the conceptual drawing was allotted 65,440 square feet to accommodate amenities such as multi-purpose areas lined with quality fitness equipment, a lap/competition pool, open fitness areas, racquetball court, a kids area, conference rooms with a teaching/demonstration kitchen, and clinical and physical therapy spaces and support areas.

The initial price tag for all those amenities was estimated at $25.34 million. By slightly downsizing the size of the pool and the air structure, IBIS found nearly $2 million in potential savings.

The new total of $23.37 million includes operational and marketing costs as well as the cost of purchasing high-top-notch fitness equipment. At this point, there is no formal plan to pursue a new facility. The city and the school district have not discussed any plans on how, theoretically, each entity would fund half the cost of any such project.

We did the business plan in two phases, Jarmusz said. At the end of Phase 1, we asked people for their feedback, and the consensus of the city council and school district was, You know, the numbers are real high. We want all these things; dont get us wrong. But is there a way to look at it and and trim some things? So thats how, thats why we looked for some savings.

That also isnt to say that some of the other amenities eventually could not be downsized or eliminated to lower the potential cost further.

This is just the starting point, Jarmusz said.

At modest membership prices $45 for one person, $95 for a family the center eventually would need to attract a total of 1,611 members, according to the conceptual vision presented last week. Jarmusz said that 1,611-membership level is the difference between being a money-losing or revenue-generating facility within five years.

No one gets near (that target number of memberships) on Day 1, she said. Regardless of wherever the facility is located, its always a membership ramp-up. When you open the doors, you are not going to have 1,500 or 1,600 members right away. Its going to happen over time; some people are going to wait.

That membership threshold is based on conservative estimates based on the demographic pool. In virtually all cases in the past, the actual number of members surpasses the conservative-based threshold. Jarmusz said its not a big leap of faith to imagine steadily increasing membership numbers amid many of the new activities and programs that would be possible.

(The current center) already has 1,000 members, but its much better to come from a conservative perspective, she said. I always tell people, You cant over-project, you cant over-design and you cant over-build, or youre setting yourself up for failure, right from the beginning.

What the DeWitt area may lack in terms of population density, it makes up for with an impressive spirit of collaboration, Jarmusz said.

Most of the partnerships that we have developed have been in urban, more-densely populated areas, she said. What I think is unique about DeWitt, and this is my perspective as an outsider, is that (city officials) have used the partnership model very well. Its amazing for a town of that size, with 6 or 7,000 people to be able to have gotten all that accomplished with the fine-arts center, and they were able to get the community behind renovating all of the schools, and now the library.

Originally posted here:
Expert: A big fitness center is realistic - Clinton Herald

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