Old Zellers to be home to fitness facility
The former Zellers store in the Royal City Centre will soon be occupied by a fitness centre.
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Updated: November 25, 2009 6:52 AM
A portion of the old Zellers at Royal City Centre will soon be home to a relocated, expanded, redefined—and renamed—Lady Dyna-fit Health & Fitness.
Construction has been underway for several weeks at the corner of Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue, where the company plans to open a 15,000 square foot facility in the glassed-in atrium.
Dyna-fit, owned by Jeff Humphries and his wife Alison, has been located at 1015 Columbia St. (Columbia Square) for 15 years, but Humphries said when his landlord wanted to increase the rent "30 to 40 per cent" they started exploring their options.
That's when he stumbled upon the old Zellers space one day while out with his son. He brought in his architect and designer, and they said "man, we could do a lot with this," said Humphries.
The new location will be twice the size of the old one. The old escalator has been removed and a 5,300 square foot mezzanine is being built in the former department store space. This area will be for women only, Humphries said, and the lower area will include a new addition: co-ed fitness.
He said there are few options for men in New West, so they wanted to help fill that niche.
So along with the new focus comes a new name—Dynamic Health & Fitness, which is how the facility will be known when it opens on the target date of Feb. 1.
Humphries said Dyna-fit currently has 1,500 members, and the response to the news of their planned move has been positive.
"I had no idea the number of our members who live up there," he said.
And he's confident the move from Downtown to Uptown is a good one.
"It's arguably one of the busiest corners in New West," Humphries said.
