Life Time Announces Land Deal with Maple Grove To Build New Club
This story was updated on Nov. 8.
The city of Maple Grove and Life Time Fitness announced a land deal Thursday that would allow Life Time to build a new flagship fitness club, while allowing the city to continue its vision to expand the Maple Grove Community Center.
“It has been a very long time coming,” Mayor Mark Steffenson told CCX News in an interview. “We’ve been working on this deal with Life Time for several years now and it’s finally coming to fruition, so we’re very excited about it.”
The community center, which adjoins the current Life Time, is already undergoing improvements, including adding a third sheet of ice.
Under the agreement, the city will secure 17.5 acres of land in the Minnesota Health Village, located southeast of the intersection of Highway 610 and Interstate 94 near Maple Grove Hospital. That land will be used by Life Time to build a new club and allow the city to pursue additional development opportunities.
In exchange, Maple Grove will assume ownership of Life Time’s 70,000-square-foot building, which city leaders say will help broaden the scope of the community center renovation and expansion.
Phase one of renovations — including the construction of a third ice sheet — are already underway. Phase two of the project is expected to begin later next year.
The future construction will include renovations to the aquatics area and other infrastructure improvements, which will now be enhanced with the Life Time building acquisition.
“We’ve been adding a third sheet of ice, we’re going to redo the pools, and now this last phase allows us to buy the remainder of the building and complete that transaction with them so we can refurbish, redo the Community Center,” Steffenson said. “And so we have a great place for our city-community-government related buildings right here in downtown Maple Grove.”
According to the city press release, Maple Grove will utilize $10.9 million from existing capital funds to complete the deal. The city’s share of the transaction will ultimately reach $17.5 million, including a tax abatement and a waiver of special assessments for the new Life Time building.
Chuck Stifter, director of parks and recreation for Maple Grove, said it’s unique to have all of the city’s amenities on a single campus.
“We’ve got our ice sheet, our gymnasium, senior center, banquet facility, and a lot of communities have those on separate sites or have them split,” he said. “So we have it all on one campus. That’s kind of the beauty of adding that Life Time space is we can continue with that.”
The city expects to relocate some of the active recreation space like the gym and teen center to the Life Time building, Stifter said.
A rendering of the Maple Grove Community Center after renovation.
Life Time’s New Club To Offer ‘Cutting-Edge Approach’
Life Time is proposing a new flagship athletic club in the city that aims to offer a “cutting-edge approach to healthy living” with additional programming and amenities.
“We look forward to offering a new, more comprehensive athletic country club featuring our latest designs and amenities that better serves our members,” said John Griffith, senior vice president of real estate and development at Life Time.
The agreement would allow Life Time to lease its current facility at the Maple Grove Community Center until its new athletic club is operational so no service is interrupted.
“It’s going to be one of what I’ll call the new, big, fancy Life Time facilities with their adjoining work housing that they have planned,” Steffenson said. “So I mean, it’s going to be a beautiful new facility right on [Highway] 610, so that’s going to be a big asset for the community as well.”
Life Time’s concept plans for the Minnesota Health Village are expected to come forward at the Nov. 25 Maple Grove Planning Commission meeting.
The Maple Grove City Council is then expected to review the plans at its Dec. 2 meeting along with agreements for the real estate exchange, leasing and tax abatement.
Kevin Miller contributed to this report
