A 24-hour fitness facility that will also house a beauty salon, a small restaurant and a meeting room could be open in Greenfield as early as March next year, according to co-owner Robert Arthurs.
Small Town Fitness, currently located at 319 Jefferson St. in Greenfield, held a ground-breaking ceremony Monday at its planned new location at the corner of Jefferson and Fourth streets.
The two-story building will have approximately 12,000 square feet. Upstairs, it will house The Glitz Beauty Salon, which will add tanning services, plus a room that can be rented for things like parties, classes and meetings. The workout area will be downstairs along with a lobby and restaurant that will offer things like sandwiches and smoothies. There will also be locker rooms with showers, and evening babysitting services for members, according to Arthurs.
The owners are Robert Arthurs, a 1999 Unioto High School graduate, and his wife, Carolyn Arthurs, who is also a high school math teacher at McClain High School.
Robert, who said he holds degrees from Ohio State University in sports and leisure and exercise science, said he moved back to the area after living in California and Arizona and ended up in Greenfield because of his wife’s job. He said his current facility has been open for about 15 months and that he always had long-term plans to open a more permanent facility, but now the plans are moving forward more quickly than he expected.
He said his goals are, “To provide a safe, well-equipped, educational and motivational atmosphere that will encourage our community to seek, maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
The exercise facility will offer conventional gym equipment including cardio equipment, free weights, resistance machines, kettlebells and medicine balls; plus functional training that will include tractor tires, sledgehammers, sandbags, and obstacle course training equipment like an arch bridge, warped wall, and climbing ropes and walls.
“In addition to the conventional gym, we’ll cater to American Ninja Warrior-type training,” Robert said. “The closest facility with that kind of stuff is in Columbus, so hopefully our market can expand a little bit because of that.”
Robert said the facility will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays. He said members will have key card access to the facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The tentative opening date is March 1, 2017.
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or on Twitter @13gillilandj.
