Fitness Premier 24/7 Clubs Impacting College Student Wellness with Satellite Location

Fitness Premier 24/7 Clubs, the 17-unit fitness franchise, continues to make fitness accessible at any time in locations across the country. The brand recently announced a new expansion in the form of a partnership with the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign to open a gym for students who live on campus.

The franchise is working with Smile Student Living to offer all residents access to a Fitness Premier satellite location, which will be open in time for this year’s incoming freshman class when they move in this fall. The memberships are included in the students’ leasing agreements.

“They were interested in adding an amenity center in one of the buildings,” said Emily Janssen, head of real estate and construction for the brand. “At first we were working with them on a consulting basis, but once they realized how easy our business model could be set up there, they saw the value in having a gym.”

“We're really excited to offer 24/7 access for the students and offer a place for them to maintain healthy habits when they don't have their mom and dad around, and maybe they're not playing sports anymore because they're in college,” she added. “They have a facility on campus that is for everybody, but it's my understanding that it's usually really crowded and a lot of the athletes use that, so people that are just run-of-the-mill and want to grab a quick workout are going to have a place to go.”

The new Fitness Premier 24/7 Club location on campus will offer group exercise classes like spin and yoga, and it will be adding more options based on student demand once it’s open. There will be CrossFit equipment like rowers, spin bikes and TRX equipment, as well as free weights and other machines geared toward a younger demographic.

“We are crafting this location to be geared more towards that younger market,” Janssen explained. “Typically our market goes from about 24 to 45 years old, but in this market, we're trying to skew a little bit younger.”

In addition to expanding the client demographic, this new location will also bring in more brand awareness for Fitness Premier 24/7 Clubs. There are a lot of gyms and fitness centers in the area, Janssen said, and the franchise is focused on growing to become one of the top choices.

“As far as franchising goes, this is going to be really big for our branding,” she said. I’m really excited to continue to expand in the Champaign–Urbana market. This satellite location is going to be seeing a lot of traffic, and just having people consistently see that branding on the building is going to be huge for us.”

“I could not be more excited about this opportunity for Emily, Kathy, Josh and their team in this market,” said Fitness Premier 24/7 Clubs CEO Jason Markowicz. “It opens up lots of future opportunities with recruiting, internships, market penetration, and attracting other future club owners.”