University of Arizona Tasks Advantage Fitness Products with Expansion of Student Recreation Center

The University of Arizona’s Recreation Center was a valuable on campus resource, not only as a fitness and exercise facility, but also as a popular on-campus social destination.  The Recreation Center’s value also extended to local Tucson residents who used the facility regularly. AFP implemented a strategy that focused on not only expanding the facility to meet its ever-increasing use and demand, but also creating a facility that was environmentally friendly and armed with resources that would maximize its value for years to come. The results would be student and member satisfaction, long-term cost savings and the devoted partnership from AFP to maximize the University of Arizona’s ongoing investment in the facility. 

PROJECT SUMMARY

The University of Arizona (UA) and Advantage Fitness Products (AFP) recently completed a full expansion of the university’s recreation center. The project was initiated to address the overwhelming demand and increasing use of the facility by students and faculty.  AFP handled all aspects of the multi-faceted expansion, including layout, equipment supply and ongoing maintenance.

AFP’s ability to offer a local representative for hands-on, daily consulting, as well as its unparalleled depth of relationships with major manufacturers were key factors in the University selecting it for the project. A final and critical factor was AFP’s ability to offer ongoing maintenance of the equipment itself, rather than UA having to outscore it to another vendor. 

RESULTS

Under the direction of Key Account Manager Nels Nelson, AFP worked closely with UA during all phases of the project with an eye on both cost-effective solutions and environmental friendliness. The goal was to fundamentally enhance the current offering, anticipate and avoid potential pitfalls that might result in avoidable costs down the line, and provide as many eco-friendly solutions as possible. As a result of this “green” emphasis, the facility is expected to achieve the esteemed LEED Gold certification – a distinction awarded to commercial facilities that demonstrate an exemplary level of environmentally-conscious characteristics. LEED is an organization devoted to providing standards for environmentally sustainable construction and developments, based on a quantifiable rating system.

AFP tapped into its manufacturer relationships to fulfill the impressive two-level recreation center’s every need. The facility offers every meaningful strength-training resource, including resistance-training machines, a full range of free weights, benches and dumbbells, and a wide array of core-training and stretching accessories. A portion of the recreation center holds an extensive lineup of Cardio Theater equipment from the industry leaders at Precor. But the facility’s “wow” factor resides in not only its extensive strength-and-conditioning elements, but also its array of other exercise and recreational resources, including an indoor swimming pool and running track, outdoor sand volleyball courts as well as racquetball courts. AFP played a key role in the development of each of these features.

Once the building design and layout were confirmed and the equipment was firmly in place, the university took advantage of two extremely cost-effective and valuable resources that AFP offers to maximize the ongoing success of the facility. The university will be utilizing AFP’s innovative and proprietary online FitnessFacility.com platform. This web based service allows facility managers secured password access to a customized operational support site. This intuitive software allows the University to easily manage their equipment inventory, anticipate when preventative maintenance is required, gain valuable ongoing resource support, and overall maximize the life of the equipment while reducing facility liability.  Secondly, the University has initiated the AFP Care Program, a preventative maintenance agreement placing the specialized and time-consuming responsibility of ongoing maintenance and upkeep in AFP’s capable hands.