New Hyde Park native Warren Kelly is a step closer to opening his own fitness center, which he said would be “a dream come true.”
He and business partner John Francois of Bellerose on Tuesday presented their proposal to the Village Board to open their REP Strength training center at 125 S. Eighth St.
Trustees reserved a decision on the application and referred it to the Nassau County Planning Commission, but they gave good feedback and only one resident had concerns about parking, Kelly said. A final decision should come by early April.
“I’m beyond excited,” Kelly said. “The feeling that I got last night, I can’t even describe it. I’m really excited to get this facility open and help people move.”
REP Strength — for “Recover, Evolve and Perform” — will offer rehabilitative training, corrective exercise, conditioning and weight loss training in one-on-one and group settings, Kelly and Francois have said.
A unique service they’ll offer is fascial stretch therapy, a special stretching regimen to injury prevention and recovery that few others in the state offer, Kelly has said.
The two-story, 1,500-square-foot building at 125 S. Eighth St., currently a construction garage, won’t require much modification before the facility opens, he has said.
While he declined to comment on the pending application, New Hyde Park Deputy Mayor Lawrence Montreuil said trustees will examine the center’s “harmony … with the surrounding neighborhood,” including potential parking, traffic and other impacts.
Kelly said at Tuesday’s meeting that the center would see between four and eight clients per half hour, with some being picked up and dropped off, Montreuil said.
“If there are concerns we will write some conditions into the permit,” he said. “That would protect the neighborhood in regard to whatever those concerns might be.”
Kelly and Francois need a special-use permit and a parking variance for the space from the village Board of Zoning Appeals. Both decisions will come after the county Planning Commission makes its decision, Monetreuil said.
An April decision would put the pair on track for a planned June opening, Kelly said.
“As soon as they give us the OK we’re going to hit the order button on the equipment,” he said. “It’s just the waiting game now.”
Kelly and Francois will have two other trainers joining them at the center, Kelly has said.
The pair have known each other for about three-and-a-half years, he said, and currently work at Siege Athletics in Mineola.
They have built a strong client base in the New Hyde Park area and often work with youth sports teams, Kelly has said. They each do about 100 training sessions a month.
