Gym is out, ‘BAC Express’ is in

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, September 6, 2006

The Gym at the Pavilion folds, and Bainbridge Athletic Club takes its place.

It took nearly 15 years for the Bainbridge Athletic Club to work on its expansion.

It took only a few months to expand into new territory.

The Gym at the Pavilion on Madison Avenue is closing its doors, and taking its place will be “BAC Express,” an offshoot of the Meadowmeer health club.

But BAC co-owner Ted Eisenhardt said they won’t change much about the Winlsow gym – they’re not buying the property, and patrons who have memberships through the gym still will be honored.

“We’re not taking over the club,” Eisenhardt said. “They’re closing. We’re opening. But one of the things that we’ve agreed to do was honor the existing member contracts. So if somebody joined and paid for a year in July, then we’re honoring it until next July.

“We’re bringing our logo, our philosophy, and using that space.”

BAC Express will serve as a workout place for ferry commuters and BHS students, Eisenhardt said. The space will offer shorter and more intense classes, and other activities that BAC can’t provide in its main location.

“People are crunched for time,” he said. “A lot of the additional programs that we have here (at Meadowmeer) and the amenities, they don’t want. They want to get in, get out and go. We think we can do that here and we can do that at a lower price.”

The club plans on offering an “Express” membership, which will let members use the Pavilion’s upstairs location and the equipment at BAC Meadowmeer during specified hours each week. Prices will start at $35 per month with no year-long contracts to sign.

If a member needs to make a change, a 30-day notice is needed.

BAC also will offer an “Advantage” membership, giving members access to both the Winslow and Meadowmeer locations and all amenities.

“A person for not much more than they’re paying to be a member here (at Meadowmeer) can be a member at both locations and have the convenience (of) both locations,” Eisenhardt said.

BAC also is expanding to take advantage of the recent population boom in Winslow. With five new developments and more than 600 people moving into Winslow, Eisenhardt feels the downtown location is good for them and will help draw more clientele.

“Winslow’s growing quickly,” he said. “We’ve only been in the fitness piece of this (club) for a year, but we’ve got great response and feel like we can take a lot of what we do here down there and in a different format.”

Jeff Brein, the co-managing partner of the Pavilion, said the change is welcome. His company, Madison Avenue Real Estate, took over the Gym at the Pavilion several years ago when the previous investors moved on to other ventures.

“We’re in real estate, not to operate a business,” Brein said. “We’re not experts in running a gym. Our goal was to take the gym over, stabilize it and eventually keep the gym and lease or sell it.”

Brein said the discussion between Madison and BAC had been going on for a couple of months, and they wanted to keep things local.

“Our preference was, we wanted someone from Bainbridge Island who would honor (Gym patrons) memberships and give them a value added to their current memberships,” he said. “As a landlord we want someone we’re comfortable with to pay their rent every month.

“Based on these guys being on Bainbridge for 15 years, they get it,” Brein added. “Their facility is magnificent, we thought they were the right guys and bingo, there they are.”

Eisenhardt is also excited about the opportunity.

“It allows us to do some things that we can’t do (at Meadowmeer), like the ‘express’ thing,” he said. “All of those things are very exciting. It’ll be extremely high quality.”

The change takes place Oct. 1.

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Fitness express

Current Gym at the Pavilion members and prospective clients can get information on the new BAC Express by calling 842-5661.