D.C. Developer David Von Storch Is Pumped To Take Fitness Centers To A New Level [photos]

“Gyms in Washington used to be just that: gymnasiums. Musty, ratty, gloomy rooms of iron, always underground. In the early '90s there was a subterranean Bally's on L Street NW and a windowless workout room at the YMCA. In 1995, after becoming majority owner of the Capitol City Brewing Company franchise, von Storch signed a lease-to-own agreement for a hulking restaurant supply building at 1612 U St. NW, the gateway to the dodgy, undeveloped U Street corridor. There, on the cusp of present and future D.C., he would create a new kind of gym that would anticipate an evolution of expectations. Fifteen years later: Expectations are being met. U Street is $18 glasses of wine and gleaming condos with doormen. The belly of...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/26/AR2010072605287.html