Harrison Gym Groundbreaking Set For Oct. 3

HARRISON, N.Y. – A groundbreaking ceremony for a new gym headed to Harrison is set for Oct. 3 at 1 Gannett Drive, the former home of The Journal News.

“We made the deal to expand our corporate mile – start changing the aspects of the corporate mile,” Mayor Ron Belmont said of the June pact with Life Time Fitness. “We’re trying to not make it just the corporate mile anymore, try and have some diversity there.”

The 207,000-square-foot family recreation center will be built on 24 acres of land after the former Journal News building is demolished in late October or early November, attorney Frank McCullough said. Construction will begin in the first half of next year, and the fitness facility will be open by the end of 2014.

With more than 105 health clubs throughout North America, the Harrison Life Time Fitness center will be one of its biggest, an NAI James E. Hanson spokesman said. The New Jersey-based commercial real estate firm represented Life Time Fitness in buying the building and has worked on three other fitness centers with the company.

"It’s a massive place,” said Belmont. “I think it’s six tennis courts, three swimming pools, two full-sized gyms, exercise rooms.”

The site was selected because of its “size, location, access and the area demographics,” NAI Hanson Senior Vice President Kenneth D. Lundberg said in a statement.

McCullough had called it "more than just a gym" in June. 

“I think it’s going to have a regional impact," he said. "It will not only draw people from Harrison but from other area of Westchester as well. It will generate new taxes, and we anticipate that it will generate revenue for the entire area.”

Now that Life Time Fitness owns the building, a public hearing will be held at the Oct. 4 town board meeting to address “a new monument sign by the end of Gannett Drive, as well as related lighting utilities and landscaping improvements.” Gannett Drive is a town road.

As far as the road’s name – it was named for Journal News parent company Gannett Co. Inc. – Belmont was not sure it would stay.

“That’s a very good question,” he said. “I’m not going there. It might [change], but I don’t want to start that ball rolling until it rolls.”

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