What: Fitness club that offers resistance and cardiovascular workout machines, showers and locker rooms, tanning beds and hydro-massage beds in a no-frills (no day care and no instructors) atmosphere.
Who: Taj Group LLC.
When: Soft opening Friday; Grand opening, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday.
Where: 9919 N.E. Hazel Dell Ave., Vancouver.
Employees: 14.
Membership fees: $10 to $20 per month.
Web: www.planetfitness.com
A new fitness center is opening in Hazel Dell.
Planet Fitness will open its second Vancouver location on Friday at 9919 N.E. Hazel Dell Ave. in the Northgate Village Shopping Center, next to Grocery Outlet. The company’s first Clark County gym opened in 2011 in the Garrison Square retail center off East Mill Plain Boulevard and Garrison Road.
The Hazel Dell location is the third for husband-and-wife business partners Kalpana and Octavio Lubrano, owners of Taj Group LLC, which bought the franchise rights to bring Planet Fitness to the Portland-Vancouver metro area. The Lubranos also own and operate a Planet Fitness facility in Portland’s Rockwood Plaza shopping complex at Southeast 182nd Avenue and Division Street.
The Lubranos said they were approached by regulars at the Garrison Square gym who asked them to add a second Vancouver location.
What: Fitness club that offers resistance and cardiovascular workout machines, showers and locker rooms, tanning beds and hydro-massage beds in a no-frills (no day care and no instructors) atmosphere.
Who: Taj Group LLC.
When: Soft opening Friday; Grand opening, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday.
Where: 9919 N.E. Hazel Dell Ave., Vancouver.
Employees: 14.
Membership fees: $10 to $20 per month.
Web: www.planetfitness.com
“Our current members wanted Planet Fitness to come north and we saw there was really a need for it,” said Kalpana Lubrano.
Planet Fitness centers offer a no-frills workout atmosphere geared more toward general fitness and less on bodybuilding and power lifting. The new 17,000-square-foot gym will be equipped with nearly 100 cardio workout machines, including treadmills, elliptical, stair-climbers, arc trainers and stationary bikes.
The gym also will feature the PF360 system, which is used by contestants on “The Biggest Loser,” a reality weight-loss show on NBC. The second runner-up from the show’s recent season, David Brown, who lost 222 pounds, will be at the new Hazel Dell Planet Fitness from noon to 8 p.m. Monday.
Kalpana Lubrano said Planet Fitness appeals most to working women, “people who just want to get in, do the workout and get out.” She added that a typical Planet Fitness facility’s membership is made up of approximately 60 percent women and 40 percent men.
The new Hazel Dell facility will create about 14 jobs. Monthly gym membership prices range between $10 and $20.
