Downtown Springfield business doubles members after move, expansion

Pat Frock, owner of Springfield Health and Fitness, talks about the new spinning room she’s added recently. Springfield Health and Fitness has increased its membership by double. Bill Lackey/Staff

Pat Frock, owner of Springfield Health and Fitness, talks about the new spinning room she’s added recently. Springfield Health and Fitness has increased its membership by double. Bill Lackey/Staff

A downtown Springfield gym has doubled its membership and added a spinning studio, part of an ongoing expansion of the business.

Springfield Health and Fitness invested $30,000 to purchase 20 Mad Dog spinning bikes and opened the newly constructed spinning room last month. The gym is in the renovated former Springfield News-Sun building, 202 N. Limestone St.

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The room is currently being painted to resemble the skyline of Springfield in what owner Pat Frock said will be a glow in the dark display of iconic buildings of Springfield’s history.

“It will look like when you are riding the bike that you are riding at night in past Springfield before some of the buildings came down,” she said.

This is the latest addition in what Frock has described as part of an ongoing expansion process to the business’s 43,000-square-foot facility since they moved from the Bushnell Building in December of 2015.

“She has constantly been expanding and she has every piece of equipment that there is now,” said Jim Lagos, who owns both the Bushnell and former News-Sun buildings.

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Since the move the gym has doubled its membership from about 650 to almost 1,300 members and Frock plans on further expansions, such as enclosing the loading dock outside with glass and turning it into a ninja warrior training course. She says that it will be visible from both Spring and North streets.

“We don’t have any contracts so if people aren’t happy they know they can leave,” she said. “Which obviously makes it so my people have to make them happy because we don’t want them to leave.”

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Lagos said he’s willing to let Frock expand more.

“Basically this is already a huge space that she has, but whatever is needed we’re there with her,” he said.

The gym now offers 25 spinning classes weekly, which are free for members.

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