What was once an expansive garage is now home to a large swimming pool in Ottawa’s newest wellness destination – a members-only health and fitness sanctuary that merges self-care and sophistication.

Altea Active, a chain of new fitness and wellness centres, opened the pool at its 129,000-square-foot Ottawa outpost in early May, says chief executive officer Jeff York, a former executive at both Farm Boy and retailer Giant Tiger.

With high-class amenities such as aquatics facilities, recovery areas and multiple types of fitness classes, Altea Ottawa – which officially opened in November – is redefining how and when Canadians get their sweat on in a postpandemic world.

Renewed focus on fitness

In the year after June, 2022, almost 400 fitness and recreational sports centres opened across the country, according to Statistics Canada. At the same time, fitness industry revenue hit nearly $4.3-billion in 2022, up from $3-billion a year earlier as pandemic restrictions relaxed.

It’s “a new day in fitness” across the country, says Sara Gilbert, president of the Fitness Industry Council of Canada. While Canadians once spent money on trips they had postponed during COVID, they’ve “turned to themselves again” with a renewed sense of urgency, she adds.

The renovation of an old Canadian Tire into arguably Ottawa’s most modern fitness facility reflects an industry that has “always been at the forefront of innovation,” Ms. Gilbert says.

“You look back in the 1980s and we had these huge step-aerobic studios, and that took up most of the space in gyms. The gym industry … our strength is the ability to innovate and always listen to what members need, and the ongoing transition of our facilities to meet those needs.”

Redefining Canadian workout culture

Altea Ottawa is now Canada’s largest fitness and wellness centre.

The $30-million facility boasts nine fitness studios (the spin room alone cost $1-million), six pickleball courts, exercise machines of all kinds and zones for emerging fitness-class concepts such as HyRox (the new CrossFit, Mr. York says). There’s also a postworkout recovery area with red-light therapy and Hyperice cold-therapy boots, a women-only exercise space, the new 25-metre pool, as well as a smoothie bar and a Starbucks in the lobby.

There are four other Altea locations across the country. A fifth will arrive soon in the former 31,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack in Toronto’s upscale Yorkville neighbourhood. The forthcoming location will open under the name of AVANT by Altea Active – the company’s ultrapremium offering that’s specific to urban areas such as Yorkville.

“We tend to look at real estate as a static thing, but it services a fluid world, and as that world ebbs and flows, change abounds,” says Shawn Hamilton, principal at Proveras Commercial Realty in Ottawa. “Spaces get occupied with uses we would never have dreamed of.”

Unlike other large-scale gyms, Altea’s facilities won’t be popping up everywhere.

“It’s the opposite of GoodLife. We want to be exclusive,” Mr. York explains. “We are going to [places] where the market is already there for people who want the best. But we want to deliver it at a competitive price where people are still getting value.”

Standing out in a crowded market

Mr. York says Altea’s competition are mid-sized fitness studios. If you’re a regular at hot yoga, boot camps and spin classes, you could pay upward of $1,000 a month in fees, he explains. Altea offers all that and more in one place – something that is becoming more common across the country.

Altea is not the only fitness centre working to redefine exercise culture in Canada. At Toronto’s The Well, a mixed-use complex less than a kilometre from the CN Tower, sits the newest Sweat and Tonic – a cheekily-named boutique gym that offers more than a half-dozen classes, personal training, a spa with registered massage therapists, a pool and sauna. The city’s Yorkville neighbourhood is also saturated with fitness options, including luxury gym Equinox, Barry’s Bootcamp and three GoodLife gyms.

“You’ve got to be where people live, work and play. That’s the key for the future,” Mr. York says. “You upgrade your facility because that’s where the market is going. The murky middle is not where you want to be.”

Altea’s Ottawa plan was clear from the start, Mr. York explains, with 80 per cent of the original blueprint becoming reality. It eliminated a restaurant and members’ club from the plan – the same thing it did at the Liberty Village location in Toronto – because it wanted to focus on fitness.

Challenges of renovation

Altea’s renovation in Canada’s capital took just over a year. A full month was needed just to remove shelves, nuts and bolts from the Canadian Tire for what would become the facility’s hotel-like lobby, Mr. York says.

The challenges also ranged from laughable – swapping the directions of the old escalators – to serious, such as installing individual HVAC systems in each room and studio. It was a hurdle, but it was a success. Despite the facility’s roughly 6,000 members and upward of 350 fitness classes per week, there’s a reduction in body odour because of the new system.

That work was all taking place on the inside.

“No one knew we were working on it because we never changed the physical structure,” Mr. York says. “The biggest question was, ‘When are you going to start construction?’ but we had already started for six months.

“Making a big building feel comfortable is hard to do.”

Only 16 per cent of Canadians have a gym membership, according to the Health and Fitness Association, so it’s no surprise that fitness facilities in Canada would aim to strike a balance between value and choice.

“Many boutiques under one roof is the way fitness should be delivered,” Mr. York says.