Membership drives Wave expansion

A plan to expand The Wave fitness center got its first OK during the Whitefish City-County Planning Board meeting last week.

The board unanimously voted to recommend a conditional use permit for the project. The plan will go before the city council for a public hearing on June 3.

The Wave is planning to add 9,200 square feet to the southwest of its building. The expansion area will include a reorganization of the locker rooms, a larger daycare center, an additonal party room and another aerobic room. The expansion also includes two additional family change rooms.

Wave board member Lin Akey pointed to the fitness center’s 4,600 members as reason to expand.

“This is one of the great successes in our community,” Akey said. “We endeavor to offer our services to all facets of the community. We need to grow and expand.”

The Wave is required to obtain a conditional use permit under the city’s big box standards for all new structures with a building footprint of 15,000 square feet or greater.

The expansion is expected to be completed by early spring 2014.

“We are very excited to take this next step in our commitment to continually improve this amazing community asset,” Wave director Art Kruger said. “We will take every measure possible to make this as smooth a process as possible.”

This is the second expansion for The Wave. Work was completed in 2007 to add 4,700 square feet to the building to expand the weight room and cycling room and add an exercise room.