Les Mills welcomes move back to Christchurch inner city

28 March 2012

Les Mills welcomes move back to Christchurch inner city

One of Christchurch's best known inner city businesses will return to the CBD on March 30, with the reopening of Les Mills Christchurch City Gym in Cashel St.

Les Mills, a Cashel St resident since 1980, opened a new state-of-the-art gym in 2009, but was forced to relocate after February 22 last year, with its city gym off limits inside the CBD cordons.

Club manager Toni McGregor-Tout said Les Mills was delighted to return "home."

"It's great news for us personally and for all our members but it's bigger than that. We see our move as a significant step forwards for Christchurch as we are coming home and will be bringing our members back into the city along with energy, fun and passion for what we do."

McGregor-Tout said the purpose-built Cashel St gym had fared extremely well with only relatively minor repairs and cosmetic work.

"These were all relatively easy to fix and the minor repair process also gave us the opportunity to “freshen up” some paintwork, and build new offices/staffroom since the building next door was demolished after the Boxing Day quake."

Warwick Issacs, CERA's general manager of operations, described the reopening as another milestone on the road to recovery.

"We congratulate Les Mills for their hard work in getting the building ready to welcome gym goers back into the CBD. We have been working with Les Mills to ensure that the building is ready and that the cordon opens up to give safe access to the gym and western carpark through Hereford and Liverpool Sts."

New carparking with 120 spaces beside the Club will also be welcome news for members. The building has an A Grade rating, based on the Earthquake Risk Grading system, as defined by the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering Inc.

McGregor-Tout said the iconic national brand was totally committed to the inner city Christchurch rebuild and saw its re-opening as an integral milestone.

Shortly after last February, Les Mills set up a series of outdoor exercise classes for members until they established temporary premises in Riccarton.

"We knew that it was so important for people to get back to exercise as quickly as possible. It's such a great way to help deal with stress and to try and bring some normality and routine back to people's lives. A lot of our members know each other well so they have a real sense of community, which has been highlighted over the past year," McGregor-Tout said.

"We're so grateful to our members and staff who've shown such patience over the past year. It's been fantastic to have temporary premises but I think everyone is looking forward to getting back into a much larger space with all our usual timetables and equipment in place."

Christchurch-based Richard Beddie, CEO of Fitness NZ, said that exercise was regarded as one of the best way of managing stress.

"It's fundamental in any stress management programme and we certainly saw how important it was for people in Christchurch following last year's events. It's tempting for people to stop exercising when they're under extreme stress but it's the time to really keep going.

"The re-opening of the Les Mills Christchurch City Gym is a huge milestone, especially because the city has had half the gym capacity it enjoyed pre-earthquake."

Les Mills will return to its usual hours: Monday - Thursday 5:30am-9pm; Friday 5:30am-8pm; Saturday and Sunday 7am–5pm. Its Early Learning Centre will open again shortly.

ENDS

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