Activate and Re-Purpose Idle Property Space

Empty racquetball court? Tired retail corner?
Pull the sheets off your overlooked storage areas spaces and re-purpose them into new, engaging amenity areas that will improve the owner-resident experience and elevate your whole community’s lifestyle.
Maybe you have a forgotten corner, unused offices or ill-conceived retail space. It’s easy to turn those into stretching areas, or a yoga/cycling studio, or a wellness room with massage and/or salt tables. Today’s modern and millennial consumer is demanding more open, wellness-driven residential environments with upgraded amenity offerings like state-of-the-art gyms and pools.
Storage facilities, garages or an unused racquetball court, for instance, vary greatly in size, quality, and construction. Some properties have been designed and built specifically for self-storage, while others have been converted from prior use such as a car dealership or a big box retail store. New safety and building standards must be upheld at every step of the way, too.
Transforming Dated Storage Space Into Engaging Fitness Amenities
Although storage facilities, duplicate social rooms, or vacant racquetball courts vary in size, quality and construction, all represent tremendous opportunities to not only improve the property’s lifestyle but also enhance its business performance. The 2017 study by the National Apartment Association (NAA), Adding Value In The Age Of Amenities Wars, clearly and unequivocally found that amenity investment leads to increased return on investment (ROI).
Functional Training Areas Mean Big Business
Investment in fitness centers (#1) and pool complexes (#2) both have a direct impact on increasing rental fees, improving occupancy rates, enhancing resident retention through greater social connectivity, and increasing property values by increasing property cash flows. Functional and high-intensity training (HIIT) workouts are hot areas in fitness today. And they are a simple, relatively low-cost solution to re-purpose under-used spaces for fitness/wellness offerings because they need very little equipment and equipment that is lower cost than traditional treadmills, bikes, and single station strength machines.
Functional training and HIIT in their most simplistic meaning uses exercises that mimic everyday movements and routines. Popular equipment includes suspension trainers (they use your own body weight as the resistance), stability balls, strength/resistance bands/tubing, kettlebells, medicine balls, jump ropes, dumbbells, slam balls, Plyo boxes, battle ropes, Bosu balance balls, and pull up bars.
So you can see, with a little space and a few small pieces of equipment, boom — you can offer your residents access to a top trend in fitness right at their home.
Engage Your Wellness Amenities With Spa and Wet Areas
Innovative aquatic center design and equipment is one of the top amenities at universities and residential tenant requests. “Compare and contrast your offerings with your counterparts in the hospitality field clubs, hotels, and spas how do you compare?” “Are you winning or are you behind in the way you’re delivering your amenity offering?” says Ben Basch, vice president of American Pool Enterprises.
Activation of your pool and wellness amenities encourage owners and tenants to engage in your community. Basch says, “It’s critical to follow the same ‘on-boarding’ procedures for your pool and wellness amenities as you do for other key property protocols.” Transform those empty or forgotten storage spaces:
- To create the engagement you’re looking for you need to activate empty spaces with bells, whistles and other shiny toys, all of which improve tenant retention, social connectivity, and community loyalty.
- Soft activation Fitness On Demand, Wellbeats, Escape Fitness Programming, Virtual Sports, TRX, Apple TV, Peloton, Aviron Interactive Rowers, or investigate new Virtual Reality concepts.
- Hard activation Amenities might include Zumba or yoga classes, small-group aquatic training, and even dog walking on premises. TF Living is an excellent group to reach here for these services–www.tfliving.com
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Whether it’s a drafty corner office or half a basement used for filing cabinets and last year’s treadmills, it helps to stay highly organized and know your own space parameters for storage and convenience.
Ask yourself these design questions as you consider utilizing extra space at your property, commercial gym, university sports complex or even your pool space —
- Does your property require 24-hour access?
- How do elevators or escalators affect your storage space?
- How much can you depend on wall mounts and power racks?
- Are there unused courts or unused halls or rooms of any kind?
Heartline’s certified specialists offer a free site and safety assessment and may check your facility’s spatial design, traffic patterns and lines of sight, wiring and outlets, CATV needs, eco-lighting, equipment brands, cardio and strength machine placement, and many other tasks required during a comprehensive fitness and wellness facility assessment.