Gold's Gym Plans Three Area Fitness Center Sites

“Owners of the Green Bay-area Gold's Gym franchise are changing plans for a 55,000-square-foot building in Ashwaubenon and are instead opting for three smaller area locations. The move to three 20,000-square-foot locations is expected to cost about $2 million per building, said Jamie Nelson, one of four co-owners of Gold's Gym in the Green Bay area and Fox River Valley, and will give the gym facilities in areas where market research showed a need for them. ‘It's really a drastic turn in the philosophy we were going to bring to that market,’ said Nelson. Gold's now operates a location at 790 Hansen Road in Ashwaubenon. ‘We felt we could change our approach and go into more user-friendly fitness centers by making our clubs smaller, a little more efficient and placing them in neighborhoods,’ Nelson said. ‘Also, with the economy where it is at, it makes them a lot more cost effective.’ He said single monthly memberships will run between $19 and $27, and would have been higher with one central location — probably around $50. Each gym location is expected to employ about 30 people.New locations in Howard, east De Pere and Ashwaubenon (near the existing Gold's location, but at a lower rental rate) are slated to open later this year and into 2010, Nelson said. ‘It's very feasible we could do three clubs over the next 18 to 24 months,’ he said. Locations were selected after studying where their customers were coming from and where the need for facilities existed. He said Gold's Gym has evolved in the last 20 years and now sports a female membership rate of about 62 percent in Green Bay and the Fox Valley. ‘Nationwide, Gold's gym is a majority female,’ Nelson said. ‘It's been a big change over the last 15 years. … We became way more family focused.’”

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090610/GPG03/906100593/1247