Downtown Royal Oak LA Fitness set to open

Work is wrapping up on the new LA Fitness facility in downtown Royal Oak.The developer, Schostak Brothers, expects to finish the building within the next week or two. Stephen Duczynski, vice president of the Development Division for Schostak Brothers, says the job is about 95 percent complete. “There is still some site work that needs to be done.” The new two-story building at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Washington Street measures out at 45,000 square feet. It is built on stilts so vehicles can park on the ground floor. The gym will be housed on the second floor.The Woodward lot is the consolation prize for the Livonia-based company. It first proposed putting the facility in the Gateway Plaza parcel at the corner of Main Street and I-696. Think a suburban-style, single-story building surrounded by surface parking. The type that made the progressive urbanists of downtown Royal Oak cringe.City officials convinced Schostak to trade the Gateway Plaza for the Woodward parcel. The idea is to save the Gateway Plaza parcel for a dense, urban, multi-use development on the former car dealership space.Source: Stephen Duczynski, vice president of Schostak BrothersWriter: Jon Zemke