Florence Morning News - August 12, 2007
By Charles Tomlinson
The Fitness Forum aims to help downtown Florence get in shape by expanding its services, updating its exercise equipment and renovating the building’s exterior.
The Fitness Forum has been in the gym of the former McClenaghan High School since 1984. It was initially owned by Carolinas Hospital System, but owner Karen Leatherman bought the building last year.
“I knew that in order to make the next move ... we needed to renovate,” she said.
The Fitness Forum is committed to its location, Leatherman said.
“We saw that as a chance to be part of the excitement” in downtown Florence, she said.
The area will be home to the Francis Marion University Center for the Performing Arts as well as the relocated Florence Little Theatre. In addition, Turner, Padget, Graham & Laney, P.A., will be the anchor tenant in a new downtown business center scheduled to open in 2008.
The first phase of the Fitness Forum’s project includes the demolition of three of the gym’s four racquetball courts, which cover 3,400 square feet and are less popular than they were 23 years ago, Leatherman said.
The former courts are being converted to cardiovascular and strength-training areas, which are much more popular now, Leatherman said. The gym has added more than $150,000 in cardio and free-weight equipment to replace outdated equipment, she said.
In addition, the Fitness Forum will renovate its men’s and women’s locker rooms as well as the pool area, she said.
Leatherman also plans to expand the gym’s retail shop, add a daily fresh-lunch service and offer a full-service day spa.
Leatherman said the 1,500-member gym has about 500 visitors a day, and she said the renovated facility should attract even more people.
“Part of the success of anything downtown is people coming downtown,” she said.
Fitness Forum officials will work with the Florence Design Review Board to ensure their exterior renovations are compatible with other development downtown, Florence Urban Planning and Development Manager Phillip Lookadoo said.
“They’re not very rigid guidelines,” he said. “We’ll work with them to help them come up with the best project they can.”
Lookadoo agreed that the renovations will be a good step toward downtown revitalization.
The renovations, which began last month, should take a total of nearly six months. They will culminate in a grand reopening in early 2008, Leatherman said.
“I look forward to making a difference,” said Leatherman, who added that she expects Florence to “explode” with growth in the coming years.