Total Fitness Biggera Waters opens months after early-morning mystery arson attack
A Gold Coast gym and wellness centre targeted in a brazen ram raid and arson attack weeks before it was due to open has risen from the ashes – literally.
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A Biggera Waters gym targeted in a brazen ram raid and arson attack has risen from the ashes – literally.
Total Fitness Biggera Waters was due to open earlier this year, but was subject to what police believe was a targeted ram raid and arson involving two men at 2am on February 22.
No one has been arrested and the investigation, according to police this week, is ongoing.
Now the fledgling gym, health and wellness brand has shrugged off the setback and officially thrown open its doors to the public.
Total Fitness Biggera Waters club general manager Erich Lima said it had been a “very intense couple of months” but the arson, and subsequent strip-out and rebuild, meant his team was able to deliver a club that was “bigger and better” than what they had promised originally.
And it was the community response that had spurred them on, Mr Lima said.
“(The community) reached out directly to us to offer support. Some people offered to help clean up or offered to help with the rebuild as they had companies and they knew people as well,” he explained.
“They took it personally, a lot of people, and that’s the reason why we decided not to give up and be scared – to do it for them, for what the gym means to everyone.”
The newly opened centre features a gym floor that is 200sq m bigger than first imagined, new, quality top-of-the-range equipment, and luxury lighting.
“We took the opportunity to build something bigger and better, in a nutshell,” Mr Lima said.
Mr Erich said the club went above and beyond your typical gym, offering 24-hour access, as well as more than 70 group fitness classes a week including Hyrox classes, strength and conditioning, reformer pilates, yoga, hot yoga, and boxing.
There’s also a fully-equipped recovery centre with everything from hot and cold magnesium plunge pools to infra-red saunas, steam rooms, hydromassage beds, and more.
Every member gets access to the members lounge, and complimentary 3D scans.
“We want everyone to have access to those facilities. If you were to have memberships for all these features – individual memberships for each one – would cost upwards of $150 per week,” Mr Lima said.
“We offer all those for a fraction of the cost, but not compromising on quality.”
Total Fitness Biggera Waters is the first of its brand, and there are plans to open more venues on the Gold Coast in the next three-to-five years, before expanding nationally.
In February, Gold Coast Acting Chief Superintendent Peter Miles said: “Investigations to date have shown two men that look like they’ve put a vehicle through the front of the premises and then followed up by setting it on fire.
“A jerry can was seen to be in possession of one of the males. It’s not like this is an accident, there is a fair degree of intent involved here.”
Superintendent Miles said police were aware of outlaw motorcycle gangs’ interest in gyms.
“We know extortion is part of their business as usual model, we know competition does create issues for them,” he said.
“We’re looking at all avenues and all lines of inquiry.”
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Originally published as Total Fitness Biggera Waters opens months after early-morning mystery arson attack
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