---

Silverlake, the Family Place

It was back in 1996 that Better Health, a health and fitness club opened in a 7,160 square foot store space in a shopping center in Erlanger, Kentucky, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2001, a nearby swim and health club ran into financial difficulty, so Better Health acquired them, merged the memberships, and relocated to the larger facility, operating as the Silverlake Recreation Center.

In 2002, Silverlake retained the White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group to undertake a member and market analysis to evaluate how best to grow the business. Our analysis showed the best opportunity was not to pursue the typical health and fitness customer where there is increasing competition, but rather to position Silverlake uniquely in their market area as a mid-upscale family fitness and recreation destination. Based on that analysis, we designed major renovations ($2.5M in 2013 dollars) that included upgrades to the locker rooms, family changing rooms, dry children's play areas, improved childcare drop-off area, a new lobby design and lobby seating. The renovations were completed in 2005 and the center was rechristened as Silverlake, the Family Place to better capture its brand identity as a family lifestyle center rather than a typical health and fitness center with a swimming pool.

Since the renovations, we have had an on-going consulting relationship with Silverlake, which has included studies for additional expansion and offerings for their members.

In 2006, Silverlake decided to add an outdoor aquatic center to offer family members outdoor options during the summer months. The $4.0 million (in 2013 dollars) aquatic center opened in 2007.

Since 2002 as a result of all the renovations and expansions, as well as Silverlake's excellent management, membership has grown at the rate of 6.9% a year, and their revenues have increased 7.5% a year (inflation-adjusted). This is all the more impressive when considering that their market area's population only grew 1.3% a year and there is increased competition from new health and fitness clubs that have opened near them.

Now, into our twelfth year of our relationship with Silverlake, our company is currently working with them on feasibility and preliminary designs for a major building expansion to accommodate space for their growing membership and to increase membership value by adding additional indoor family-oriented entertainment options.

As with all our feasibility, design and production work, for Silverlake's expansion, we are undertaking a detailed due diligence analysis first of who the target customer should be (what segment of their members plus what type of new members, including their socio-demographics) and how to create the greatest value for them (in this case creating membership value). Of course are we also examine planning issues such as needed capacities, return-on-investment, traffic flow, cost, support facilities, etc.

---