Restaurant at Newmarket's Magna Centre may become fitness facility

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 3, 2015
By Chris Simon

Magna Centre may get a fitness facility in January 2017.

Newmarket staff unveiled plans to convert the restaurant at the Mulock Drive recreation complex into a town-operated fitness facility, during a committee of the whole meeting Monday. Should the plan be approved as presented, the space would be transformed into a teaching kitchen and 2,500 to 3,000-square-foot fitness area.

“A fitness facility, including a full-service educational kitchen, provides an excellent opportunity to create a financially sustainable facility that also provides a socially responsible approach to community health and wellness,” recreation and culture director Colin Service said. “Creating a fitness space improves the relevance of the facility for parents, grandparents and siblings by enabling them to participate and get active while respective children are participating in a program in other parts of the facility. We really want to incorporate the idea of the whole experience of fitness.”

A fitness facility would be membership-based, though day passes will be available. A cardiac rehab membership will also be created, in partnership with Southlake Regional Health Centre, to aid patient recovery. Membership fees would also be competitive within the existing marketplace, though a financial assistance model will be introduced to help needy residents afford entry.

However, there are some concerns over the proposal. Councillor Joe Sponga worries the facility will deter residents from existing local businesses.

“When we developed that facility, we made a commitment we wouldn’t be engaging in providing fitness businesses there that could compete with others in our municipality,” he said. “There is potentially a big philosophical shift; we’re going into an area we said we wouldn’t.”

By the third year of operation, the Magna facility should generate more than $105,800 in net profit. It could accommodate 3,000 members, though the financial structure is based on a ‘conservative’ 1,500, Service said.

The town currently leases the restaurant space to a commercial tenant for about $35,000 per year. However, the lease is set to expire at the end of May, which gives the town a good opportunity to ‘reevaluate’ use of the space, Service said. 

“This restaurant and concession space has consistently struggled with the current lease holders regularly requesting a reduction in the rent,” Service said.

Others say the town has an obligation to provide a more affordable and holistic fitness alternative to what is currently offered at other local facilities.

Membership would include access to fitness classes, the pool area and the walking track. And family memberships could also be created to extend access to public skating and swimming hours for children.

“Times have changed since we opened Magna,” Councillor Dave Kerwin said. “We tried the restaurant with different owners and it just wasn’t successful. There’s no money to be made there. It’s an all encompassing recreation and leisure complex. We’re not really competing any longer with family-run businesses. Persechini’s Fitness (and Squash) is gone; he could not compete with the giants out there. (Small facility owners are) all gone, they’ve been run out of business by these mammoth companies. There’s no hesitation for me to support this.”

Council needs to decide on the matter fairly soon, so start-up money can be allocated in the 2016 capital budget and the facility can be constructed in time for the critical January sign-up period that comes after New Year’s resolutions are made. It would cost about $300,000 to convert the space, Service said.

The desire for a fitness facility at Magna was also expressed through the recently approved Recreation Playbook master plan document.

 

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