After false starts, new gym in Norfolk is out of the blocks
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Opening a gym at 115 W. Tazewell St. in downtown Norfolk has had its share of drama. But finally, after two years, a couple of false starts and three tenants, downtown Norfolk property owner and restaurateur Sture Sigfred thinks he has the tenant he needs for the long boarded-up, 101-year-old building to get in shape and stay that way. The saga began in early 2008, when a sign bearing the name Fuel Fitness appeared on the boarded-up exterior of the old building. It was a gym concept conceived by a man named Jerry Curran. The build-out and interior restoration of the long-shuttered building began with plans to open the gym by October of that year. Curran, the story goes, more or less disappeared, leaving Sigfred with an old building on its way, but not quite ready, to becoming the next player in an already crowded marketplace for fitness clubs. Sigfred didn't give up on the idea of having a gym in his building. He found Brian Cavanaugh, who with the help of investors, founded and ran Premier Fitness in the Harbour View section of Suffolk. Sigfred liked what he saw in the high-end Premier concept and approached Cavanaugh and his majority investor, Ron Jackson, about bringing a similar gym to Tazewell Street. Slowly but surely the building's transformation continued as Premier, with the help of Jackson's money, prepared for its grand opening in January. Cavanaugh sold the message that his high-end concept, which had seemed to be working well in Harbour View, would work in Norfolk by attracting downtown residents and professionals.
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Opening a gym at 115 W. Tazewell St. in downtown Norfolk has had its share of drama.