Jim and Karen Kabat of Joliet came to Orland Park recently for Karen’s dentist appointment.
Rather than hanging out in the waiting room, Jim sought out the Orland Park Charter Fitness facility. The 66-year-old is a member of the Homer Glen facility but used the idle time in Orland Park to get his workout in.
“That’s one of the advantages,” he said. “I can go to any of them. The fact I can do that is really great.”
The last couple of months Charter Fitness has been making a big splash in the Chicago area.
Last September, the Orland Park-based company converted 38 local Cardinal Fitness facilities to Charter Fitness including gyms in Cary, Crystal Lake, Darien, McHenry, Mokena, New Lenox, Niles, Palos Heights, Park Ridge, Schaumburg, Tinley Park, West Chicago and Westmont. A new facility will open soon in Willowbrook.
Some of the existing gyms, including the facility in Orland Park, will expand and soon host grand re-openings. Officials expect the changes will bring in 200 new employees over a 12-month period. The company hosted four job fairs in January.
In a bad economy, the business is still able to expand.
Customers work the machines at the Orland Park Charter Fitness. (Jeff Vorva/Tribune)
“I think within the fitness industry, we are a great value,’’ Charter’s director of sales, Dan Collins, said. “We grew up in Chicagoland. We have a great presence here. So we have a good opportunity to expand our business. We’re growing and adapting to the times. We decided to step up the levels of our facilities and size.”
The Orland Park facility was at 7,400 square feet and is expanding another 3,500 square feet and will be able to put in more equipment and use it for more training space and bigger locker rooms.
To hear some customers talk about it, the key is the price of the place, which runs $10 a month for individuals to $19 per month for families.
Kabat, who has been a Cardinal/Charter customer for 10 years after the former New Lenox grade school teacher had quadruple bypass surgery, said he works out there three times a week.
“I can’t afford to not be a member,” Kabat said. “Yes they don’t have swimming pools and hot tubs and all of that kind of good stuff, but that’s OK. I can exist without those.”
Jim Faille, a two-year member from Orland Park who said he works out four times a week so he can keep up with his 14-year-old son, Trevor, who is a two-sport athlete at Jerling Junior High School.
“It’s a block away from my house and you can’t beat the price,” he said. “I couldn’t resist it. The only thing I wish they could change is the hours. I wish they would open earlier.”
