Tulsa downtown development shaping up

Downtown Tulsa has suffered more than most neighborhoods during the past year's recession. There are vacancies everywhere you look. But a big name is moving in. <br><br>News on Six business reporter

Friday, November 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Downtown Tulsa has suffered more than most neighborhoods during the past year's recession. There are vacancies everywhere you look. But a big name is moving in.

News on Six business reporter Steve Berg says what could be better for a "weak" economy than a new fitness gym. And the Powerhouse gym is a name that has some weight behind it. You might not recognize the Powerhouse name. But they have a chain of more than 200 gyms across the country. And this is the first for Oklahoma.

And husband and wife team, Scott and Julie Key say they're big fans of downtown. "When we saw the building, we knew it was what we wanted." This was the old Jim Norton Buick dealership. Now they've gone from sleek auto-bodies, to the maybe not as sleek human kind. The old showroom is a cardio-room. And in the old repair shop, people will be trying to fix their physique in the free-weight room.

"Being an old car lot, it was wide-open and was well-suited for what we needed to do." Big windows will let you show off your new form, or help pass the time. "You have a great view to watch the cars go by or people watch or whatever while you're doing your training."

The gym will obviously cater to the downtown market. The Keys say there are 50,000 workers within walking distance and they offer a 24-minute express workout designed for the lunchtime crowd. But with the kind of highway access downtown has, they say they could draw people from all over. "I mean we live in Sand Springs, it's a 7-minute drive from my house to this gym."

But can they revive a decidedly "un"-healthy downtown economy. Obviously they can't do it alone, but they say places like this will get the ball rolling.