Fitness club poised to open in downtown location
True Fitness — a health club that recently pitched locating inside ground-floor retail space within the Pelissier Street parking garage — is on the verge of announcing it will open in a different downtown location.
“There is some very good news coming for downtown,” Larry Horowitz, chairman of the Downtown Business Improvement Association said on Wednesday. “It will be a major tenant coming who will take a huge chunk of space and fill a huge service need.”
He did not wish to provide specifics citing an official announcement and identification of the health club’s location that will be made within days.
“It is a health services business,” Horowitz said.
“Some say there is nothing to do downtown. This will give everybody something to do — and make you healthier and happier. It will provide a huge attraction for residents and visitors in the core.”
The owner of the health club, located in the 4800 block of Tecumseh Road East, proposed opening a second location last fall during a controversial city council debate in a bid to save the parking garage’s first-floor retail space.
Council instead voted to spend $500,000 to create roughly 50 more parking spots inside the garage and remove the retail space that faces Pelissier Street.
The health club’s owner, Luis Mendez, at the time said he believed downtown would provide a “very viable option” for his business.
He could not be reached Wednesday by the Star.
But Horowitz said the health club will be located downtown and utilize 10,000 square feet of currently vacant space.
The downtown BIA will contribute incentives to help the health club open, he said.
“This is important to make downtown progressive and pedestrian friendly,” Horwitz said.
With classes for the University of Windsor’s creative arts and music students scheduled to begin this fall in the former armouries complex on University Avenue East, Horwitz said interest is really picking up with business operators seeking to open up downtown.
“We expect to make more announcements in the near future,” he said.