I'm seeing allot of commercial construction activity at the Commercial Corner of Highland City lately. This corner for those of you not familiar would be at the major state hwy's of 92 and Alpine Hwy Junction(74), not too far from the entrance to Am. Fork Canyon. It looks like construction on the Newport Sports Club is fianlly getting underway. I'm pretty excited about this Gym as it will be very well equipped and so convenient for the area.
Also, seeing allot of activity on the big remake of Highway 92, which is going to be a first in design for Utah. I think, even the entire U.S. has only another one in Texas quite like it.
Recap on the Newport Sports Club facility:
An artist's rendering depicts the Newport Sports Club.
The 90,000 square foot athletic club will offer a full array of fitness and wellness programs for the entire family, including indoor and outdoor pools, three NCAA/NBA regulation basketball courts, five volleyball and two racquetball courts, training areas for soccer and football, batting cages, spinning, cardio and free weights, yoga, a full-service day spa, child care, student academic center, golf fitness, restaurants, retail shops, a VIP Lounge, media room, concessions and spectator viewing areas.
Principals in Newport Sports & Fitness LC are Frank Tusieseina, a veteran of the sports and entertainment industries who moved to Highland from California roughly two years ago; Tom Hulbert, a principal with Thomas Fox Properties, the Salt Lake City firm that is developing Highland Marketplace; and Mike Morley, a principal at M-13 Construction, the Springville-based company that will build Newport Sports Club.
"We call ourselves the next generation of fitness sports clubs," Tusieseina said. "No other club will offer all that the Newport Sports Club does for the active lifestyle of today's family, sports enthusiasts of all ages and levels and focused training of our future collegiate and professional athletes."
Unlike conventional fitness centers, Newport, slated to open next summer, will be the first Utah fitness facility to offer comprehensive athletic programming, skills training and performance conditioning by top athletes and coaches in a state-of-art training center.
Top athletes offering programs at Newport Sports Club will include former Utah Jazz player Thud Bailey, BYU All-American and NFL player Jason Buck, BYU baseball All-American Murphy Su'a and current BYU men's head volleyball coach Shawn Patchell.
"I came here specifically from Redondo Beach to develop this concept because the land was cheaper here," Tusieseina said. "The other unique thing was in order to make this model work you need a lot of athletes, and even though I come from an area where there are probably more than a million people in our little neck of the woods, and there are barely a million and a half people between Salt Lake and Utah counties, the families are much larger here in terms of kids and their involvment in sports is through the roof. So this whole concept of marrying fitness and sports was to try to engage the entire family. So much money and time is spent on our kids, we wanted to afford them the opportunity to have training available to them. If we're going to expect our kids to aspire to be Olympic athletes and Divison One athletes, we certainly should be ready to train them even while they're in their youth."
Another factor behind the development of Newport was the fact that Thomas Fox Properties was unable to secure a large grocery tenant for Highland Marketplace, as originally planned, due to a Highland City ordinance that mandates businesses be closed on Sundays.
"He [Hulbert] couldn't get a grocery store for the life of him," Tusieseina said. "So we got together about four or five months ago and a fitness center can handle not being open on Sunday without a problem."
Memberships in Newport are currently available but pricing is still being determined. Even without a membership, Tusieseina said, the general public will be able to enjoy the facility on weekends, when the club will often host baseball, basketball and other sports tournaments.
Tusieseina said the message he would most like to impart to the community is that Newport will house an academic center designed to help guide children and their families toward being good citizens.
"We're really focused in on getting these young kids and their families to understand what it takes to prepare their kids for college in the event that they're not going to make it in the pros, or even to college," he said. "We want them to be good citizens. We'll do a lot of mentoring, a lot of life lessons as they relate to being a student athlete. We want to shepherd the parents, who are spending an enormous amount of money on investing in their kids in sports, but you should pay attention to the citizens they'll become and how they can serve their community. We want the current collegiate athletes to come and mentor the younger kids, not only from [the Highland areal but we hope to bring some kids in from the west side and the inner city of Salt Lake and have them mentored in that environment and help them change their lives as well."
James Williams & Associates, Salt Lake City, designed Newport. Tusieseina said financing for the project was no obstacle, even in these credit-crunch times, because Thomas Fox Properties had funding in place for the entire 186,000 square foot Highland Marketplace more than a year ago.
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