AusLeisure

The planned opening of TotalFusion’s latest Brisbane gym, in the suburb of Morningside, is to be decided in a Queensland Court in July, with group founder Leon McNiece facing the prospect that the completed facility won’t open until the second half of the year and may be prevented from ever opening.

Set to be the fourth TotalFusion facility, after clubs in Chermside, Newstead and Mt Gravatt, the opening of what had been promoted as “Queensland’s biggest gym facility” was halted late last year after its neighbour - meat supplier Australian Country Choice - appealed against the new club’s planning status in Court.

The result, as reported by The Courier-Mail before Christmas, saw McNeice having to lay-off 100 staff and disappoint over 2000 members who had signed up before the much-anticipated opening of “Queensland’s biggest gym facility” was delayed.

McNiece this week advised that the Court battle would go ahead “in July” after arbitration between the two parties failed, explaining that the facility would only open if the gym’s approval was upheld by a judge, and the earliest that could happen would be in August.

McNiece, who last year described the postponing of its opening date just days out as “heartbreaking” told The Courier-Mail “we’re very confident we’ll have the right to open after our court proceedings in July.”

Australian Country Choice’s lawyers at the time argued that TotalFusion’s location in an industrial area was “inconsistent with the Council’s intention to preserve Brisbane’s highly effective freight infrastructure.”

McNiece, best known as the founder of Goodlife Health Clubs, now owned by the Fitness and Lifestyle Group and for building Snap Fitness in Australia and New Zealand up to 2018, has built the TotalFusion brand with his wife Michelle.

TotalFusion Morningside has been built as the “ultimate training and wellness destination” with six studio spaces offering yoga, functional, fusion, cycle, run and reformer classes, as well as a state of the art gym, child minding services and a wellness centre with recovery facilities, sauna and hot and cold recovery pools.

Images: TotalFusion Morningside (top), the new gym's wellness space (middle) and TotalFusion's Michelle and Leon McNiece (below). Credit: TotalFusion/Facebook.

Related Articles

8th February 2021 - Viva Leisure opens Titanium branded Club Lime Pyrmont

11th February 2021 - International fitness bodies launch leadership initiatives

21st January 2021 - New research shows Barre classes to be world’s most-searched fitness class trend

23rd September 2020 - Pilates, strength training and yoga the most popular classes as Australians return to fitness facilities

2nd December 2020 - Australian Institute of Fitness predicts top industry trends for 2021

22nd November 2020 - IHRSA survey highlights users’ sentiments on the essential role of fitness clubs

6th November 2020 - Australian gym goers spend an average of $79 a month on memberships

19th October 2020 - Reopened fitness clubs see more than two-thirds of members return

9th October 2020 - Body Fit Training and F45 ramp up legal battle over patents

7th January 2020 - Queensland Government once again singles out fitness clubs for fair trading warning

19th August 2016 - Ardent Leisure sells Goodlife​ Health Clubs in $260 million deal

18th February 2015 - Goodlife bolsters full-service offering with 24/7 announcement

15th November 2012 - Snap Fitness introduces altitude training at Morningside gym

3rd August 2012 - Goodlife recognised as one of the world’s leading fitness clubs

16th June 2010 - Greg Oliver Moves to Head Goodlife

28th January 2010 - Goodlife Launches Revive Weight Control Program

27th May 2009 - Snap Fitness to expand into Australia and New Zealand

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.