Philly’s Phinest Profiles Ken Davies of City Fitness

The Memorial Day holiday just last week signals the beginning of the summer. And if you’re looking for a gym to get yourself in shape, you need to look no further than City Fitness, recently awarded by the Philadelphia Weekly Image Awards as the number one gym in Philadelphia.

The owner and president of City Fitness is Ken Davies. Although a self-expressed fitness fan, Davies had another career long before City Fitness launched into the stratosphere.

“I was in the commercial real estate business. After investing in a few properties, I decided that it would be better to live in the city so that I could keep a better finger on the pulse of investment opportunities,” says Davies. “After finding a place to live, I started to look around for a gym to join. I was surprised by how limited my options where for a city with so much to offer in other areas such as culture, restaurants and night life. After spending all day going from club to club and not finding one that I said to myself ‘Yes, I can see myself being a member here for a long time.'”

Although Davies may seem like an overnight success story, getting City Fitness off the ground was anything but an easy task.

“The process of getting City Fitness off the ground was a very long and tedious one,” recalls Davies. “I had no idea how hard it would be. The first step was finding a place in an area that really needed a fitness club. The location at 2nd and Spring Garden street offered a great opportunity to bring a state of the art facility, not only to the Northern Liberties area, but to many of the surrounding areas because of the convenient location to the EL, SEPTA, Columbus Blvd, 676 and 95.”

“The first time I started to question my ability to get this off the ground was with the banks and investors. This was the time of the real estate boom, so investors wanted their pound of flesh and then some to invest in something, as they called ‘so risky.’ Knowing that is was going to take much more then a great business plan, I would need to invest more money then I wanted to to show that I had enough skin in the game. The only way to do that is to start selling memberships. I invested more money into the business and started off with 300 pre-sold memberships. After going through this process, which took about three months, I got the loan and construction began. After several delays we opened on August 27, 2007.”

Davies’ blood sweat and tears finally seemed to have paid off, and his gym is getting more recognition with each passing day.

“City Fitness offers a state-of-the-art fitness club at very reasonable pricing. We pride ourselves in being a very spacious, clean and friendly facility and also how friendly our staff and members are. People love that we have plenty of great equipment so there is no or very little wait to use something. Our four group classrooms allows us to offer a diverse and fun schedule of group classes (Spin, Yoga, Butts and Guts, Boot Camp and Zumba) to name a few. No matter if you are a fitness enthusiast or a beginner, you will truly have something for everyone!”

“We offer our standard membership, which provides use of the the fitness facility and is only $19.99/mth and no contract (other services, such as, unlimited classes, unlimited tanning and towel service can be added on for a nominal monthly charge). We also offer a Deluxe membership includes the standard membership and all the add on’s for $29.99/ per month and our NEW City FitPak, which includes the following: Standard Membership, Unlimited Classes, Unlimited Tanning, Towel Service, DotFIT (a on-line weight loss and nutrition tool), Three personal training sessions, 20% off any supplement purchases and monthly body fat tests for only $34.99/per month. We do ask for a one-year agreement on our deluxe and City FitPak’s. We want the member to really use what we are offering so we can help them reach their health and fitness goals.”

Despite the success of City Fitness however, Davies has never been one to rest on his laurels.

“We have been approached by a few developers and property owners to look into opening another City Fitness,” mentions Davies. “I look at all opportunities, but I am not sure where the next one will be yet. When I do, you guys will be the first to know!”

Contact Joe Vallee at jvallee@philly2philly.com

For more info, go to info@cityfitnessphilly.com

Photo: Aileen Bannon