By CATHY JETT
Gateway Village shopping center on State Route 3 is finally getting a new anchor.
A Gold's Gym franchise is moving into the former Hechinger's, which has been vacant since the home-improvement chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed in 1999.
"We think Fredericksburg is a great area," said co-owner Eddie Dail, who also is a partner in the Gold's Gym in Culpeper. "It's the best part of the D.C. market."
The new Gold's will open in more than two-thirds of the 60,000 square-foot Hechinger's building between Sept. 1 and Oct. 1. Allied Building Products Corp., which sells to professional contractors and remodelers, already occupies the rest of building.
"The gym has the potential to increase the number of people who go to the shopping center," said Patrice Duker, spokeswoman for the International Council of Shopping Centers. "It will enhance the tenant mix."
The new gym's highlights will include a cardio cinema, where members can exercise while watching movies; a Cybex Trazer, a virtual reality exercise machine; a 25-meter, four-lane swimming pool; a half court for basketball; a cafe; and a Kids' Club for infants to 12-year-olds.
"The Kids' Club will be over 3,000 square feet and will have exercise components that are fun," Dail said. "That's something I'm very passionate about. We want the kids to cry when they leave, not when they come here."
The new Gold's also will have 100 pieces of cardio equipment, including Cybex treadmills and arc trainers; a full line of strength-training equipment; aerobics, Pilates and yoga classes; a workout area just for women; a doctor's office offering free consultations once a week; tanning booths; and sports massage.
Gold's already has set up shop in a storefront near Fredericksburg Golf Center in Gateway Village. It is selling memberships at an introductory price of $24.99 per month, and will have cardio and strength-training equipment set up in this location next week.
"The membership fee will go up in phases until we open, and will probably end at $40 per month," Dail said.
Gold's policy, however, is to continue charging members whatever price was in force when they signed up.
"When I opened a Gold's in Fairfax, membership was $19.99 a month," Dail said. "I still have members who are paying $19.99."
Gold's also offers an all-clubs membership that allows members to use other Gold's Gyms, including the facility Dail and his partners eventually plan to open in Stafford County. The chain currently has 45 locations in the metro Washington area and about 600 locations worldwide.
Besides Dail, other partners in the Fredericksburg franchise are Sandy Hall of Fredericksburg, Mike Krongaard of Richmond and Kevin Gustafson of Reno, Nev.
They expect that the gym in Gateway Village will attract users from a 10-mile radius, and see 2,000 to 3,000 workouts per day, according to Dail. Some users will likely patronize other businesses while they're in the shopping center.
"That's the traditional model that we see," he said.
The Gold's Gym in Culpeper, for example, had a "dramatic" impact when it opened in Southgate Shopping Center two years ago, Dail said. At the time, the building had been vacant for about six years and the parking lot in front of it was always empty. Now it's bustling, with members averaging 1,500 to 2,000 workouts there per day.
Gyms do attract people and activity to shopping centers, said Alan Hammerschleg of Kodiak Properties. The Bethesda, Md.-based company owns the section of Four Mile Fork Shopping Center where a Sport & Health Club opened in a vacant Safeway several years ago.
"There's not a lot of spillover to other businesses," he said, "but in general it's better to have something in there and bring in people."
David Holder, Fredericksburg's economic development director, said Gold's could signal the rebirth of Gateway Village, which has such tenants as Rappahannock Goodwill Industries, Tuesday Morning, Jenny Craig and Mitchell's Quik Print.
"It's a nice area, it just needs to be reinvented to a certain degree," he said.
Gateway Village was one of the largest developments in Fredericksburg when it opened in 1986. Its first building was Hampton Inn, which is still there. The anchors, which are both gone, were Hechinger's and W.R. Blair, a catalog showroom store.
The shopping center was briefly renamed Fredericksburg Design Center, but that name didn't stick.
Hugh Cosner, a Spotsylvania County developer and former county supervisor, purchased the old Hechinger's building from Silver Cos. for $2.2 million in 2004. Later that year he also bought three other buildings in the shopping center and a retention pond from Silver for $8.5 million, according to court documents.
The deal was part of a property swap in which the Silver Cos. purchased 116 acres in the Massaponax area of Spotsylvania County from Cosner. That land is the site of Cosner's Corner, a retail development opening in July.
Other changes could be in store for Gateway Village. A Maryland couple is selling the strip of shops in Gateway Village where Chesapeake Bay Seafood House used to be located. The asking price is $3.25 million.
To reach CATHY JETT:
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com