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With an indoor creek and high-end retailers such as the jeweler Tiffany, City Creek Center aims to dazzle. An adjoining gym does, too.
Nestled on the southeast end of the sprawling shopping mall, The Gym at City Creek features an indoor pool, a movie viewing room, nine very large TV large screens among dozens of others, laundry services, a deli, basketball and racquetball courts, and a relaxation room with leather couches.
The 55,000-square-foot facility, which offered tours Thursday, March 22, with the opening of City Creek Center, is designed to cater to the thousands who live and work in and around the City Creek development. The gym is expected to open its doors for customers on Monday.
The project, created and built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, includes several office buildings with an estimated 5,000 workers. Approximately 2,000 people will work in City Creek Center or for surrounding merchants and restaurants. Hundreds more live in some of the 425 condominiums and 110 apartment units that are part of City Creek.
The gym, which is leasing space from the LDS Church, is aiming for a specific niche, said general manager Rick Strout.
The idea for a downtown health club was part of City Creek from the start, Strout said. "[The church] needed a place for people who live and work downtown to exercise and play."
Although some clubs in the suburbs cater to families and offer child-care services, The Gym at City Creek is catering to a large degree to professionals who want to work out before or after work or on their lunch hours. The club is not offering child care, and membership is limited to people who are at least 18, he said.
The club has a variety of features and programs that address in some way most of the reasons people don't work out, Strout said. In terms of entertainment, a number of the pieces of fitness equipment have built-in TVs; there are also big-screens and a screening room where patrons can watch a full-length movie while working out. The facility also offers a variety of pre-set workouts as short as nine minutes. And for an added fee, the club offers laundry services so that your workout clothes will be cleaned and ready for your next visit.
Although the formal address of the club is 51 S. Main St., its entrance is off 100 South about midblock between Main and State streets.
The Gym at City Creek is owned by Brent Cook, who also owns The Gateway shopping center's Metro Executive Fitness/Sanctuary Day Spa, and his daughter, Cathy Brunken, and her husband, Stephen.
Cook has been involved in several other health clubs, including the two that were in ZCMI Center and Crossroads Plaza malls before they were razed to make way for City Creek Center.
"We wanted to create an upscale atmosphere, just like City Creek," Cook said.
Because The Gym at City Creek is closed on Sundays none of the shops in City Creek Center and only two restaurants are open that day of the week members will be able to go to The Gateway to work out.
Monthly fees at The Gym at City Creek range from $49 to $99 per person. The club also offers an executive membership.
The club will start with 40 classes per week, including pilates, yoga, indoor cycling and zumba. Depending on demand, it may add to those offerings over time, Strout said. The club also offers physical therapy services.
Club managers say they believe that features such as a lap pool that is shared with the condominium developments in City Creek and the sports courts probably will be the most popular draws.
Tara Isaacson, who lives and works in the downtown area and signed up as a member, said even though she doesn't do a lot of swimming, she's attracted to the pool area, with its glass walls and balcony.
"The pool is gorgeous. And the balcony is cool."
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