Aug. 29, 2007 — Florida-based Rapid Fitness has purchased America’s Paradise Gym and its one St. Croix and two St. Thomas gymnasiums.
Rapid Fitness is a small, publicly traded fitness franchise company partly owned by its chief executive officer, Anthony Mellone. He flew into the territory Wednesday, meeting with gym managers on St. Thomas, and arrived on St. Croix Thursday. This was the first time he’s been to the St. Croix facility since the change in ownership.
“We were well received from our staff operating each gym, and we were very excited and impressed,” Mellone said.
Geoff Grosso is president of the V.I. franchise of Rapid fitness. He is moving to the Virgin Islands next week to restructure and get ready for a grand opening under the new name, Rapid Fitness.
According to its website, Rapid Fitness currently runs one gym in Hollywood, Fla., and recently purchased a second in West Palm Beach, Fla. With the purchase of the America’s Paradise properties, it now has five fitness centers.
The two gyms on St. Thomas are at Nisky Center on the 2nd floor, store No. E-1, and at Four Winds Plaza, unit 8 in Anna's Retreat. On St. Croix, the gym is located west of Christiansted in Estate Orange Grove, just west of the Casino Control Commission building on Northside Road. The three facilities have combined assets worth approximately $2.5 million and more than 5,000 members, generating approximately $1.5 million a year, according to a news release posted by Rapid Fitness.
“They’ve just finished dotting all the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s,” said Liz Rice, the St. Thomas general manager. “Nothing is different yet except the attitude. It’s a new day up here.”
Rapid Fitness will outfit all three gyms for Pilates, a popular low-impact strength-building program, Rice said.
“The Pilates won’t be on the floor with the weights,” Rice said. “So there will be some restructuring of the facility to make it all work well together. You can expect new bags, some new machinery and some fixing of machinery. Everybody is hopping and ready to go. We’re all very excited about the new owners and have great expectations for the future.”
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