The building will now be known as The Rookery Activity center after action from the city council to approve the logo and the name. They are key steps in marketing the facility that’s been closed since March of 2020. The logo complements the city’s existing logo with an outline of a blue heron.
The city council also named its first major community partner for the community center. Endurance Fitness of Lexington has been chosen to operate the fitness area.
Lino Lakes officials say the company comes highly respected with high end equipment.
“We do group classes. We primarily emphasize Les Mills classes,” said Endurance Fitness owner Ron Carlson. “We also do a lot of yoga and dance classes to. It will all come with us.”
Carlson says instructors are coming along too, with the aim of re-opening in the former YMCA building by February first. He says it should work out well for both the city and his business.
“Going over there will save us some money. It gives the community a place to work out, a nice facility, big facility. We can offer more services over there than we can here. So I think it’s going to work well. And it gives the city something in their facility quickly without having to buy and build everything out themselves.”
Like many health clubs, Carlson says his gym lost members during the COVID shutdowns and still hasn’t fully recovered. He was looking for a less expensive place when this opportunity came along.
“The timing was perfect for us, we would have preferred to be open in October over there, but February will work.”
The city hopes to have the newly re-named Rookery Activity Center ready for move-in by January 15th — allowing two weeks to get ready.
“So we’re moving it all and that’s our biggest challenge. Getting it all disassembled moved, reassembled and up and running as quickly as possible. We’re going to try and have as little downtime as we possibly can to keep our members working out,” said Carlson. “Hopefully we can bring good value to them and the residents get a good facility out of it.”
When The Rookery Activity center opens in February, it will be nearly two years since COVID shutdowns forced it to close.
