Kicking it up to the next level

Kids playing basketball, young men and women training for volleyball tournaments, professional athletes perfecting their footwork, sun-worshippers tanning under sun-lamps it'll all be happening under one roof.

And more, says Jason Glover, executive director of the Nevada Basketball Academy and one of the principles in the Stadium USA LLC.

The newly formed firm is creating The Stadium Sport & Fitness Club at 9393 Gateway Drive in south Reno.

A 90,000-square-foot facility, The Stadium will house a host of professional and amateur athletic training facilities, as well as a fitness club.

It will also be home to a sports medicine center, including physical therapy, age management therapy, and massage.

It's a grand vision, admits Glover.An emporium of fitness.

Its competition in the area? Nothing for the center as a whole, though the various fitness components all have local rivals.

Glover's vision dovetailed with goals of Max McManus, owner of Maximum Results, an advanced training facility for professional and aspiring-to-be athletes, along with fitness expert Laura Dufur and marketing professional April Clark.

The group teamed up last fall in a search for facilities to house their dream.

They shopped throughout the Truckee Meadows, finally coming upon the building owned by DP Partners, closing a five-yearlease with options to buy or renew.

This was it; they knew immediately, says Glover.

The building is right for a fitness mall.

The south Reno building is large enough with a high enough interior to accommodate basketball, as well as volleyball, training and tournaments.

Previously the home of the iGo Corporation, it includes about 50,000 square feet of warehouse space, estimates Glover, and 40,000 square feet of offices, in a colorful deco interior that is quickly being rehabbed into gym space with a conference room morphing into a Pilates center; office areas becoming tanning booths,warehouse space turning into basketball courts.

The conversion was designed by Cathexes,.., Architects,with work by TNT Construction.

Maximum Results is slated to move into its portion of the building within three to four weeks, says Glover.And McManus, whose clients include several football players, is keenly excited about an addition he'll have in the new facility a turf area for pro agility drills and the like.

By mid-June, the group plans to have the entire complex open.

That will include three basketball courts, five volleyball courts, and training areas for the Nevada Basketball Academy.

In addition to Maximum Results, it will also include a membership-based fitness center, complete with yoga, Pilates and aerobic workout areas.

Much of the rest of the building is being subleased to fitness-oriented tenants,with the goal, says Glover, of gathering a mix of health and fitness professionals.

On the books so far, he adds, are subleases to the Age Management Institute, Sparks Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Tommy's Grandstand batting cages, and tanning booths.