Couple Flexing Fitness Know-How In New Venture

“With a combined 46 years of experience in running the Madison Athletic Club in Madison Heights, Deborah and Marvin Henderson know a thing or two about fitness clubs.
Advertisement Yet even their latest undertaking is new territory for the married couple, who have branched out from the 22,000-square-foot Oakland County club to open the 5,200-square-foot Anytime Fitness center in Hartland Township. ‘We learned after several years we really liked what we were doing, but to really succeed in it, we needed to do our own type of thing, and we knew fitness was the thing we loved the most and what we we're good at,’ Marvin Henderson said. The couple's new venture is off Old U.S. 23 just south of M-59, near the Cromaine District Library's Crossroads branch. ‘We like the areas that are smaller in size, up-and-coming ... and more of that family, close-knit kind of community, and we feel we can be more successful in that type of environment,’ Marvin Henderson said. One of the couple's daughters also lives in the area and is a manager at the club, which opened in November and is open 24 hours daily. Members are equipped with a security card that only allows them to get in after hours. If a person tails the member and doesn't have a card, the alarm goes off. That security feature was one of the benefits that Deborah Henderson said sold her on Anytime Fitness. ‘You want to make sure whatever franchise you go into or club you're opening that you have the top security system,’ she said, with her husband adding the club's service would be ‘second to none.’ ‘What I wanted to do was take the best aspect of everything we did at Madison Athletic Club and bring it into a smaller version that is more convenient,’ Deborah Henderson said. ‘Anytime Fitness, they really hit a niche that was a draw for us.’”

http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20090114/NEWS01/901140315