Old Town gym expands in new Linden St. home

FORT COLLINS – The Old Town Athletic Club is packing up its barbells and Stairmasters for a move literally to the other side of the tracks.

Co-owners Shane Bennett and Johnny Ryan will relocate their 4-year-old club in December, moving from its current Opera Galleria home to the CTL|Thompson Inc. building located at 351 Linden St.

Howard Perko, division manager of the Fort Collins office of Denver-based CTL, purchased the former home of Sears Trostel Lumber and Hardwoods Inc. from Bill Sears, grandson of founder Carl Trostel. The $900,000 deal was sealed last January and renovation began in June.

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Ryan said the move was precipitated by a desire to expand the club, the cost of leasing Galleria space and the lack of foot traffic in their present location.

“There are still people who walk in and say they didn’t know we were here,” Ryan said. “The new club is in an area that is ready to grow and we want to grow with it.”

The building was home to Sears Trostel for 75 years, until the lumber company relocated in late 2005 to new quarters on Riverside Avenue.

The $1 million project includes renovation of the north 8,000 square feet to house CTL’s 40 employees.

The club anticipates moving into the south 9,000 square feet in December.

The relocation will allow the downtown club to add a day-care center, juice bar, larger locker rooms and space for massage therapy and tanning beds. In addition to vastly expanded cardio fitness space, the new club has space for a separate spinning room.

A 40-foot-wide strip on the south side will be built later to house a basketball court and outdoor seating.

The new location also includes 64 parking spaces. The club presently provides members with one hour of parking in the city-owned parking garage on Mason Street.

“The building is a great fit for a health club,´ said Perko. “Johnny and Shane are great to work with. They’re organized, care a lot about their members and want to provide them with a first-class facility. They’re just intelligent and fun entrepreneurs.”

The club owners have involved members in the design process, asking for advice about how the facility could best work for them.

Historic remake

Perko has undertaken his Sears Trostel makeover with the same dedication to detail, working with the city’s historic preservation staff to ensure renovations fit into Old Town.

“When you walk in the door there are 20-foot-high ceilings, rough-sawn blue fir beams, Douglas fir rafters and ceiling planks,” he said.

Perko was particularly attracted to the location because it would provide CTL’s 40 employees ready access to downtown shops, restaurants, special events and other amenities.

Several previous renovation projects have been proposed for the site, but none reached completion. The most ambitious came in 2000, when Sears partnered with former Fort Collins mayor Anne Azari and the late developer Bill Neal to develop a six-story retail and loft project. The project fell through with the economic downturn of the following year.

Perko and project planners anticipate the renovation will provide a boost to the long-planned urban Poudre riverfront redevelopment, a project dear to the heart of Neal, until his death in a 2004 plane crash.

“The area is improving with all of the city’s plans to redo Linden Street and Willow Street,” Perko said. “We look forward to the whole area improving as downtown moves toward the river.”

CTL performs tests on soil for contamination or new construction; assesses the environmental impact of development projects for developers and tests the strength of concrete samples, steel, asphalt and other materials.

Perko was the founder of Fort Collins-based Secure Engineering, which merged last spring with Denver-based CTL.

The Nov. 4 move will allow the company to merge its two locations, one on Magnolia St. and the other on Automation Way.

The construction and design team includes Fort Collins architect Mikal Torgerson, landscape architect Michael Chalona and general contractor Hartford Commercial Construction Inc.

The building has been empty for about a year, with only occasional temporary tenants in residence since Sears Trostel moved to expand its facilities.

The Linden Street building was originally constructed in 1928, on the site of the headquarters of Lt. Col. William Collins, for whom the town is named, according to historical documents.