Workout Anytime, a 24-hour fitness center, plans to expand into Gainesville.

With 19 locations in Florida, including two in Marion County, Workout Anytime wants to open another 20 gyms in 2024 and early 2025.

“We love Florida,” said Workout Anytime Director of Franchise Development Terri Harof in a phone interview. “We’ve got a location that’s in Dunnellon, which is close to you, and we’ve got another location in North Ocala. So we are very excited about continuing to grow throughout the market.”

Harof said the fitness center is currently looking for available real estate in the Gainesville market.

“Typically, we open up in a shopping center that’s anchored by a grocery store, a Dollar General, Goodwill, Big Lots, something like that, and we take over a second-generation space,” she said. “We take over a space that has been something else and then we convert it into a Workout Anytime.”

Harof said the building sizes they look at are between 8,000 to 12,000 square feet.

“We’ve always had great cardio equipment and great weight equipment, but over the last few years we’ve added a whole recovery area,” she said. “So now we have a premium recovery area, which has infrared saunas and red light therapy, hydro massage and tanning, a CryoLounge. So having those additional amenities has required a little bit more space.”

Finding a location is something that Harof said the company takes its time with.

“One thing we do not rush is real estate,” she said. “We always say you don’t get a mulligan.”

Some of the requirements that Harof said the gym needs is a someplace that has great visibility from the road, has at least 30 parking spaces, has easy access in and out of a shopping center and has great exterior lighting since people are coming and going all times of the day and night.

“We’ve got members who work out 24/7 so we want them to feel comfortable from the car to the gym and back,” she said.

Depending on finding a location, Harof said it could take between six to 12 months before the gym opens in Gainesville.

As Gainesville and the surrounding areas grow, the franchise may look at outlying areas to expand. Using the Buxton customer analytics tool, which looks at an area’s population and projected growth pattern, Harof said Workout Anytime has its eye on other locations.

“I’m looking at the Jonesville-Newberry area right outside of Gainesville and, based on Buxton, that looks like a really good area with 41,000 people in a 15-minute drive time and it’s grown at 6.7%,” she said. “So that would be a territory that we would be looking at.”

According to the Workout Anytime website, the company was started in 1975 by founders John Quattrocchi and Steve Strickland in Douglasville, Georgia. The franchise now has 198 locations in 22 states.