Lifetime Fitness Pumps Up

NEW YORK CITY-Lifetime Fitness will ramp up its expansion plans with the opening of 21 new fitness clubs in the next three years as the firm moves toward gaining a presence in several major markets, company officials said.

“We are a growth company,” Michael Robinson, the firm’s executive vice president and chief financial officer said during a presentation at the Thomas Weisel Partners Consumer Conference 2005, held Tuesday at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York City. “As we look out in the future we see what we believe is significant growth opportunities in the top metropolitan centers.”

Robinson said Lifetime Fitness plans to open six fitness centers this year, seven next year and eight in 2007 at an average cost of $22 million each as it moves towards national expansion. The company currently operates 44 centers primarily in suburban locations in eight states in the Midwest, Southwest and Maryland.