A dedicated RPM studio at Alpine Health and Fitness could be under construction by mid-November, after the Queenstown Lakes District Council approved the proposal at its full meeting in Lake Hawea yesterday.
Lakes Leisure chief executive Fiona McKissock sought the council's permission for Alpine Health and Fitness to build the $332,000 studio, which would be internally funded out of the centre's surplus.
Centre manager Richie Heap told the Queenstown Times yesterday the studio had been designed and was almost "ready to go".
"[We're]sitting down ... with the architects and builders, Naylor Love."
Once the design had been finalised, a resource consent application would be lodged. It could take between four and six weeks for the process to be completed.
Mr Heap said there was a 10- to 12-week construction timeline, but disruption for gym users would be "minimal".
The RPM studio would be located on a mezzanine floor at the north end of the existing gym facilities, above the free weights area.
"Basically, down the far end of the gym, where the free weights are, is a bottleneck.
"We're going to corner that area off and build a temporary wall by where the cafe is, going across to the reception."
The new area would be the temporary home for free weights and contractors would access the north end of the gym via another entry point so there would be "minimal impact on members", he said.
"We're very excited. It's been a long time coming and we're very pleased council has got in behind [us] and the community.
"It's going to free up us to be able to do new programmes for other user groups. It will help the community even more, so that's quite exciting".
