Pioneering gym owner takes next step

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Pioneering gym owner takes next step

fs Total Fitness owner Terry has had to adjust his

business model to stay competitive.

By KEVIN COLEMAN of the Tribunefs staff

Published Saturday, January 7, 2006

Kim Guinn climbed aboard a Cybex elliptical training machine at the

fs Total Fitness facility in the Forum Shopping Center early

this week and started her one-hour workout under the watchful eye of

personal trainer Audra . She wasnft alone. The cardiovascular

room at the club was filled with dozens of exercisers running,

pedaling and climbing in rhythmic motions.

Gerik Parmele photos

Shaffer, right, and Casey watch personal televisions

attached to each of their treadmills as they work out in the Females

In Training gym at the Missouri Athletic Club. Terry has

owned the facility since 2003.

Guinn was enthusiastic about her workout and elated about a recent

loss - 13 pounds and 4 percent body fat in about six weeks.

" I planned this for several years; now Ifm acting on it, " she said.

The 41-year-old said her energy level was waning before she hooked

up with and launched a personal fitness program. A preliminary

fitness assessment at fs revealed that her biometric report

was equivalent to an average reading for a woman 10 years older.

" That kind of wakes you up, " she said.

Guinn had tried daily walks and special diets but kept losing ground

instead of weight. She started a 30-day makeover program last month

at fs. It worked for her, and she plans to keep going.

" You can get addicted to it, " she said.

Addicted is how local health club magnate Terry wants members

to feel about his fitness facilities. Hefs trying to sell what most

people try to avoid: exercise. But itfs something most Americans

need. Although therefs some controversy about how to measure its

effect, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regards

obesity as a major health threat facing the nation. Thirty percent

of the population is considered obese, and 65 percent is considered

overweight, according to recent studies. Itfs estimated that obesity

causes more than 112,000 deaths each year related to cardiovascular

disease, hypertension and diabetes and costs nearly $117 billion

annually.

Getting adults hooked on exercise is one way plans to compete

in a local health club market that has filled with competitors since

he launched his first facility more than 23 years ago.

Courtesy of Bourgeois

The 62,000-square-foot addition to the Missouri Athletic Center is

slated for completion this spring.

Some of that competition comes from the cityfs 73,000-square-foot

Activity & Recreation Center, which opened in late 2002. , who

fought the ARC proposal, has responded by redefining his target

market and transforming his fitness centers. And now construction is

under way on an impressive 62,000-square-foot, $6 million facility

near his Missouri Athletic Club off Forum Boulevard.

Itfs all heady stuff for the unassuming entrepreneur and real estate

developer who exudes a sort of aw-shucks aura while steadily

building a successful fitness enterprise that includes four

locations in Columbia and one in Jefferson City, a staff of 116

employees, and about 15,000 club members.

œ

, 43, is no stranger to working in a family business. While

growing up in Columbia, he worked at his familyfs Farm Market

at 909 Clinkscales Road.

Terry , right, talks with Foreman Glenn Luebbert of Huebert

Builders Inc. over floor plans of the new 62,000-square-foot fitness

facility he is building.

" I grew up in that store, " he said.

His parents, and Joan , sold the store about 20 years

ago and now spend winters in Texas and work a farm in County

the rest of the year.

Terry played football for Hickman High School and graduated

in 1981. Former teammate Rob Hollinger said was " a good guy "

as well as a good linebacker and fullback.

After high school, went to Northeast Missouri State

University, now Truman State University, to play football. He got

hurt after the first season and came home to heal.

He never went back.

During his injury rehabilitation, went to Dallas for a

seminar on how to open a fitness club.

said his father agreed that a health club would be a good

business and encouraged him to do it.

" He always said to do something you love, " said.

In 1982, the business was launched in an 8,000-square-foot leasehold

at 1400 Forum Boulevard with loans from the bank and fs

parents. fs older sister, Tina, came on board as a partner in

the venture.

The fitness club offered aerobic dance classes and was filled with

weights and some Nautilus exercise machines. It was a far cry from

the high-tech machines and elaborate facilities they now own. Access

to the club was through the Forum Shopping Center because Forum

Boulevard didnft exist, and there was a gravel parking lot,

said.

Five years later, they added 4,000 square feet to the club. An

indoor pool was built in 1989. A $2 million expansion in 1995 added

a basketball court, four racquetball courts and a 3,000-square-foot

exercise studio.

In 1997, fs opened a second location in an 11,500-square-foot

leasehold at McKnight Plaza in north Columbia.

A year later, ventured outside the local market and opened a

club in St. Louis, which he sold in 2004. Also in 1998,

bought land from Highlands Property Co. at Forum Boulevard and

Southampton Drive for fs Beach & Tennis Club, which opened in

May 1999. The outdoor pool, volleyball and tennis court complex

operates between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

A Jefferson City location opened in March 2000. And in October 2003,

might have scored a coup when he offered $1.2 million to a

St. Louis group that had defaulted on more than $15 million of debt

to Union Planters Bank for the former Club Woodrail property at 2900

Forum Blvd. He renamed it the Missouri Athletic Center and

transformed the indoor tennis courts into indoor soccer fields,

created a Females in Training facility and expanded aquatic and

other group exercise classes.

œ

Since fs started, the market has become increasingly crowded

with businesses such as Curves and Goldfs Gym as consumers have

become more health-conscious. And the competition has gotten even

more heated in the past couple of years thanks to a source fs

didnft anticipate: publicly funded fitness centers.

During a soccer camp run by Central Methodist University

Cairer plays a game of tag with soccer enthusiast Ben Goodfellow, 7,

at the indoor soccer fields inside the Missouri Athletic Center.

In November 1999, city voters narrowly approved Proposition 1, which

extended a quarter-cent sales tax to raise $10.5 million for the

Activity & Recreation Center at Clinkscales Road and Ash Street.

Proponents of the ARC, such as Mayor Darwin Hindman, say it fits

within the framework of public parks and recreation.

" The role of government is to provide basic needs to its citizens,

and I consider recreation to be a basic need, " he said. " Itfs made a

huge difference in a lot of lives that the private sector was not

serving. "

and Goldfs Gym owner Jay DfAmato opposed the ARC, arguing

that it was an inappropriate use of taxes and created unfair

competition. In 1999, they spent $8,000 on an advertising campaign

to block it.

and other local fitness club owners recovered from the shock

of dealing with the ARC only to be hit with another blow early last

year when the University of Missouri-Columbia completed a $50

million expansion and upgrade of the Student Recreation Center.

Therefs an added challenge in competing with government-supported

facilities: They donft have to charge sales tax, which lowers the

cost for users.

The statefs Supreme Court has seesawed on the issue of fitness club

memberships being subject to sales tax. In 1998, DfAmato won a case

that said exercise facilities were not subject to sales tax even

though places of " amusement, entertainment or recreation " were

subject to the tax.

State tax authorities told that his clubs were still subject

to sales tax because they included " recreational " facilities such as

basketball and racquetball courts.

In 2001, the Supreme Court reviewed fs protest and reversed

its 1998 finding. The court said it was difficult to distinguish

between exercise and recreation and ruled that all health clubs were

subject to sales tax.

and DfAmato plan to organize Missouri fitness clubs and go to

the General Assembly to try to get the tax removed.

" We need to promote fitness instead of discourage it, " said.

blames the ARC and the upgraded MU rec center for a loss of

customers. He said about 95 percent of his customers were students

when his business was launched, but he figures the average age is 50

now.

" The clientele has changed over the years, " said. " But the

competition has made us better. "

has responded to the competition by providing niche

facilities with special appeal to targeted groups such as women who

want classes and personal trainers to help them get fit. More than

1,000 club members work with personal trainers, said. And he

plans to make the service more accessible and affordable.

fs most visible response to the competition might be the

construction at the Missouri Athletic Club complex. The facility,

designed by local architect Bourgeois, will include

basketball and racquetball courts, studios for exercise classes, and

an indoor swimming pool with a 60-by-90-foot retractable roof. There

will be a conference room for diet and exercise classes and

leasehold space for a tanning salon, coffee shop and juice bar.

also plans to transform the original location at 1400 Forum

Blvd. into fs Fitness Express, a nuts-and-bolts fitness center

designed to compete with the ARC. He said initial rates for this

location could be $19.95 a month - 27 percent less than the ARCfs

monthly membership fee of $27.50.

œ

might be a pioneer in local fitness clubs, but he has several

irons in the fire. Hefs married to Joanna , and they have four

daughters. He serves on the local US Bank board of directors and

develops real estate.

Lara Florea, manager of Females In Training, checks in a customer at

the front desk.

is a co-owner of Wynfield Development Co., which has

developed several local residential projects, including The Pines,

Spring Creek, Cross Creek Villas in north Columbia and the exclusive

Riverview estates along the Missouri River.

The Spring Creek development includes a section of commercial-zoned

land at Vawter School Road and Boulevard thatfs been sold to

Tom Darrough for a planned gasoline-convenience store. Another

section of that parcel will include a bank, said.

has been busy, but he plans to get back to basics as soon as

the new building is done and start working out alongside club

members.

And he plans to keep growing his fitness empire. He has his eyes on

a location for a fitness club on the east side of town.

" Ifm going to concentrate on fitness, " he said. " Itfs what I love. "