{"id":136215,"date":"2025-05-27T15:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136215\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T15:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:09:11","slug":"how-luxury-gyms-aim-to-reach-the-next-wellness-frontier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136215\/","title":{"rendered":"How luxury gyms aim to reach the next wellness frontier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Altea Ottawa occupies a former 129,000-square-foot Canadian Tire at the corner of Carling Avenue and Clyde Avenue North. The new fitness and wellness centre offers a variety of classes, including reformer pilates.Supplied\/Altea Active<\/p>\n

What was once an expansive garage is now home to a large swimming pool in Ottawa\u2019s newest wellness destination \u2013 a members-only health and fitness sanctuary that merges self-care and sophistication. <\/p>\n

Altea Active, a chain of new fitness and wellness centres, opened the pool at its 129,000-square-foot Ottawa outpost in early May, says chief executive officer Jeff York, a former executive at both Farm Boy and retailer Giant Tiger. <\/p>\n

With high-class amenities such as aquatics facilities, recovery areas and multiple types of fitness classes, Altea Ottawa \u2013 which officially opened in November \u2013 is redefining how and when Canadians get their sweat on in a postpandemic world. <\/p>\n

Renewed focus on fitness <\/p>\n

In the year after June, 2022, almost 400 fitness and recreational sports centres opened across the country, according to Statistics Canada<\/a>. At the same time, fitness industry revenue hit nearly $4.3-billion in 2022, up from $3-billion a year earlier as pandemic restrictions relaxed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201ca new day in fitness\u201d across the country, says Sara Gilbert, president of the Fitness Industry Council of Canada. While Canadians once spent money on trips they had postponed during COVID, they\u2019ve \u201cturned to themselves again\u201d with a renewed sense of urgency, she adds. <\/p>\n

The renovation of an old Canadian Tire into arguably Ottawa\u2019s most modern fitness facility reflects an industry that has \u201calways been at the forefront of innovation,\u201d Ms. Gilbert says. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou look back in the 1980s and we had these huge step-aerobic studios, and that took up most of the space in gyms. The gym industry \u2026 our strength is the ability to innovate and always listen to what members need, and the ongoing transition of our facilities to meet those needs.\u201d <\/p>\n

Redefining Canadian workout culture <\/p>\n

Altea Ottawa is now Canada\u2019s largest fitness and wellness centre. <\/p>\n

The $30-million facility boasts nine fitness studios (the spin room alone cost $1-million), six pickleball courts, exercise machines of all kinds and zones for emerging fitness-class concepts such as HyRox (the new CrossFit, Mr. York says). There\u2019s also a postworkout recovery area with red-light therapy and Hyperice cold-therapy boots, a women-only exercise space, the new 25-metre pool, as well as a smoothie bar and a Starbucks in the lobby. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The $30-million Altea Ottawa boasts nine fitness studios, including its iconic spin room, which alone cost $1-million.Supplied\/Altea Active<\/p>\n

There are four other Altea locations across the country. A fifth will arrive soon in the former 31,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack in Toronto\u2019s upscale Yorkville neighbourhood. The forthcoming location will open under the name of AVANT by Altea Active \u2013 the company\u2019s ultrapremium offering that\u2019s specific to urban areas such as Yorkville. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe tend to look at real estate as a static thing, but it services a fluid world, and as that world ebbs and flows, change abounds,\u201d says Shawn Hamilton, principal at Proveras Commercial Realty in Ottawa. \u201cSpaces get occupied with uses we would never have dreamed of.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unlike other large-scale gyms, Altea\u2019s facilities won\u2019t be popping up everywhere. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the opposite of GoodLife. We want to be exclusive,\u201d Mr. York explains. \u201cWe are going to [places] where the market is already there for people who want the best. But we want to deliver it at a competitive price where people are still getting value.\u201d <\/p>\n

Standing out in a crowded market <\/p>\n

Mr. York says Altea\u2019s competition are mid-sized fitness studios. If you\u2019re a regular at hot yoga, boot camps and spin classes, you could pay upward of $1,000 a month in fees, he explains. Altea offers all that and more in one place \u2013 something that is becoming more common across the country. <\/p>\n

Altea is not the only fitness centre working to redefine exercise culture in Canada. At Toronto\u2019s The Well, a mixed-use complex less than a kilometre from the CN Tower, sits the newest Sweat and Tonic \u2013 a cheekily-named boutique gym that offers more than a half-dozen classes, personal training, a spa with registered massage therapists, a pool and sauna. The city\u2019s Yorkville neighbourhood is also saturated with fitness options, including luxury gym Equinox, Barry\u2019s Bootcamp and three GoodLife gyms. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be where people live, work and play. That\u2019s the key for the future,\u201d Mr. York says. \u201cYou upgrade your facility because that\u2019s where the market is going. The murky middle is not where you want to be.\u201d <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Altea Ottawa features a strength-training area and exercise machines of all kinds. CEO Jeff York says it\u2019s unlike other gyms thanks to its exclusivity and to targeting a part of the market where people \u2018want the best.\u2019Supplied\/Altea Active<\/p>\n

Altea\u2019s Ottawa plan was clear from the start, Mr. York explains, with 80 per cent of the original blueprint becoming reality. It eliminated a restaurant and members\u2019 club from the plan \u2013 the same thing it did at the Liberty Village location in Toronto \u2013 because it wanted to focus on fitness. <\/p>\n

Challenges of renovation <\/p>\n

Altea\u2019s renovation in Canada\u2019s capital took just over a year. A full month was needed just to remove shelves, nuts and bolts from the Canadian Tire for what would become the facility\u2019s hotel-like lobby, Mr. York says. <\/p>\n

The challenges also ranged from laughable \u2013 swapping the directions of the old escalators \u2013 to serious, such as installing individual HVAC systems in each room and studio. It was a hurdle, but it was a success. Despite the facility\u2019s roughly 6,000 members and upward of 350 fitness classes per week, there\u2019s a reduction in body odour because of the new system. <\/p>\n

That work was all taking place on the inside. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knew we were working on it because we never changed the physical structure,\u201d Mr. York says. \u201cThe biggest question was, \u2018When are you going to start construction?\u2019 but we had already started for six months. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaking a big building feel comfortable is hard to do.\u201d <\/p>\n

Only 16 per cent of Canadians have a gym membership, according to the Health and Fitness Association<\/a>, so it\u2019s no surprise that fitness facilities in Canada would aim to strike a balance between value and choice. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany boutiques under one roof is the way fitness should be delivered,\u201d Mr. York says. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Altea Ottawa occupies a former 129,000-square-foot Canadian Tire at the corner of Carling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[23270,59609,59610,59611,59612,9884,59614,59613,59616,59615,59618,59607,1630,59617,105,59608,59606,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-136215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-adveditorial","9":"tag-advpropertyreport","10":"tag-altea","11":"tag-altea-fitness","12":"tag-altea-ottawa","13":"tag-appwebview","14":"tag-canada-fitness","15":"tag-canada-fitness-culture","16":"tag-canada-gym-membership","17":"tag-canada-gyms","18":"tag-canada-health-and-fitness","19":"tag-commercial-real-estate","20":"tag-fitness","21":"tag-goodlife-gym","22":"tag-health","23":"tag-property-report","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114580433985934056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}