One Month Later: Fitness Center Reopening in Phases

As a certified fitness professional who serves multiple multifamily apartment communities and thousands of their residents in the Dallas market every year, I’ve seen how this pandemic has affected multifamily community operations all over the metroplex. The common thread is the need to establish proper safety guidelines, communicating those guidelines to residents, and finding additional support especially in the form of gym attending and cleaning.
States are lifting COVID-19 restrictions on public places, and plans for reopening our seven gyms at three different properties are coming together in phases. I’ve been fortunate to work with one of the greats, Lincoln Property Company. Phase one: cautiously re-open with safety guidelines and accommodations. We discussed these points in our previous blog “12 Steps To Re-Open Your Fitness Center with Success”, feel free to check that out to get up to speed.
Now as residents are trickling in to utilize the amenities they’ve missed these last few months, we’ve seen a diverse mix of results. This is what we know after hiring attendants to monitor capacity levels, wipe down high touch points and ensure social distancing measures:
The positive:

Capacity: As to be expected, the repopulation was gradual. Maximum capacity wasn’t reached until a few weeks after reopening, allowing time for residents to adjust to all the new changes. Attendants available to enforce max capacity numbers and keep high touch points cleaned was helpful to staying compliant and reassuring residents could feel comfortable.
Usage: Individual use time limited to one hour has, for the most part, ……