Kelly Doucontas is tweaking some equipment at her new location in Little Falls.
Dave Warner
Kelly Doucontas has opened a second Live Well Fitness at 299 Loomis St. in Little Falls, and her other location is at 661 County Road 120, meaning it has a St. Johnsville address, but is actually just a few minutes away from Dolgeville.
She said the previous owner of the Little Falls facility had asked if she’d be interested in operating and managing another gym, “and at first I said no because it’s a lot of work, but he was really great at helping make a smooth transition between us and the current members.”
“That being said, we knew this was a good opportunity because it’s close to downtown. Our other location is basically in the middle of nowhere, but it has a great gym and is a very busy business.”
Dorkontas figured that if he could bring the same business model that had been successful in Dolphinville to the more populous Little Falls, “we could replicate that same success.”
The Little Falls facility has 10,000 square feet of conditioned space, while the air-conditioned Dolgeville facility only has 3,600 square feet. “We have a lot more space to grow and expand and bring even more health and wellness opportunities to the city.”
The facility uses a key fob system so members have access 24/7 and can train whenever they want. “We’ve added a lot of new equipment, sold some old equipment and purchased some equipment that we think we need.”
Free weights, additional squat racks and benches, leg presses, etc. “We will continue to get rid of some of the old equipment and buy new stuff,” she said.
It has plenty of weight machines and also offers some new classes not available at other spaces, including spin, Sunday yoga and bar fusion classes.
“I plan to gradually increase the group fitness offerings but honestly I need more help and instructors – I can’t do it all,” she said.
Doucontas now runs private group personal training sessions in the building. “It’s a lot of fun and I’ve met so many new people.”
When thinking about the future, Doucontas envisions some facilities at other locations: “We have a sauna at the other location, which would be great if we could eventually install that here as well. And maybe a recovery room with a cold bath, because that’s very popular.”
She said they are in discussions to hire a masseuse and are renting space downstairs for mental health therapy, “which would be a great addition to the building.”
“It would be great to partner with a physical therapist who could work with the gym and the various athletes who train here,” she said.
Live Well Fitness has a contract with the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dogs, and she said it’s been really cool to see the baseball players working out at the facility, “so we’ve been able to help out with their athletic training.”
Other than that, she says, there wasn’t much time to narrow down all the ideas: “This happened very quickly for us. In February, we weren’t even thinking about starting another business, and then April 1st, here we were.”
The business model is very similar to other places, but now that we’re up and moving and growing, we can think of new ways to utilize the extra space.
They questioned the sanity of opening another location ahead of April 1. “It was a lot of work. We didn’t have rubber flooring here. We added a great grass floor, which is especially convenient for the high school students who use it a lot.”
They painted the facility, added a security system, a new key fob system and migrated the old computer system to a new one. “It was a lot of work. Luckily, my husband, who is a school teacher, had a week off so he was extremely helpful in sorting out all the little details.”
“Now that I’m settled, I’m very happy to be in Little Falls. I think it’s a great community. I’ve provided a lot of services to the people of Little Falls in my other facilities and I have a lot of friends and family here who come to the city often. I’m happy to have a business here now,” she said.
Dorkontas said some people who commuted from Little Falls to Dolgeville liked the convenience of being in the city and transferred their memberships to the city, which she said has actually helped the Dolgeville Center, which was at capacity.
“We had about 10 to 15 members who relocated to Little Falls help us with that. Initially, we were talking about building an addition to the location, and then this happened.”
“I think it would work out well here. It’s a bigger community than where we live,” she said.
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“It has class schedules, membership information and pricing,” she said.
