Feature Article - October 2004
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These days, people want more and more from their rec centers and sports clubs. But how do multipurpose facilities expand without spreading themselves too thin?

By Kyle Ryan

Listening to Marketing Director Linda Rackner delineate the seemingly endless amenities at the PRO Sports Club, you get the feeling the place falls just short of being a self-contained compound. Located just outside of Seattle in Bellevue, Wash., the club is a 255,000-square-foot leviathan.

Sure, there's the usual stuff like a cardio area, group-fitness studios, swimming pools and courts, but there's also an auto salon, dry-cleaning service, spa, restaurant, café and medical center. Just about anything the club's 30,000 members could want is there.

Places like the PRO Sports Club put the "multi" in multipurpose facilities—if the club built adjoining apartments, people would probably never leave. As today's club members ask for more and more, it's not easy to balance those requests with fiscal solvency. Here is a sampling of some facilities that have branched out without burning out.