01 Feb 2016
BH Live snaps up ex-Virgin Active site
BY Jak Phillips
Leisure operator BH Live has made another high-profile acquisition as it continues its strong start to 2016, snapping up East Dorset’s former Virgin Active site.
The operator will spend £1m on repairs and improvements to the club, which has been unoccupied for nearly two years since Virgin Active shuttered the club in February 2014. BH Live has struck a deal with the site’s landlord – commercial aspects of which have not been disclosed – and will re-open the site this summer under the name BH Live Active, Corfe Mullen.
The acquisition of the former Virgin Active site follows just weeks after BH Live secured Fitness First’s Queen’s Park health club in Bournemouth – the site on which the gym chain’s 360-club global empire was founded.
BH Live CEO Peter Gunn said the new clubs are part of the operator’s ongoing strategy to increase the quality of public health, wellbeing and activity centres across the region.
“This acquisition, together with the recent former Fitness First club in Bournemouth, is driven by our social objective to encourage more people, irrespective of fitness level or ability to take part in, and enjoy the benefits of physical activity,” said Gunn, whose company operates more than 40 sites across the UK including leisure centres, venues, cafés and bars.
“Expanding into Poole and across East Dorset is a significant development for us to grow our health and wellbeing programmes even further across the region.”
BH Live’s million pound investment in the new Corfe Mullen club will see it revamp the pool, gym, studios and community facilities. A Terrace Café and Bar is planned to complement this once vibrant community hub.
The latest Life Fitness equipment will be installed in the gym and weekly group fitness classes will be programmed into the studios. A learn to swim programme for adults and children, together with the 813 Club and Kids’ Zone will also feature to help families stay active together.
Further health and wellbeing activities will be introduced in partnership with local healthcare providers. These include an exercise referral activity programme aimed at encouraging and supporting people who are living with specific health conditions into physical activity.
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