After five years at its current location FitKidz Gymnastics is on the move.
The club learned earlier this year the lease with the City of Penticton for the property at 199 Ellis St., previously known as the “bus barn,” and a 7,800-square-foot building, would not likely be renewed, prompting the search for a new location.
On Sept. 1, FitKidz will be moving to 249 Westminster Ave. the former Penticton Auto Sales building which had been rented in January by the city to give the public a chance to provide input on the Official Community Plan.
“It is four and a half thousand square feet, a little smaller but it will do nicely to set up the equipment,” said FitKidz owner Annette Card. “We’re really excited about it. We’re going to fix it up and it will be nicely painted.
“The nice thing is we’ll be able to stay here until then which is great.”
Related: FitKidz to remain open for now
Summer is actually the busiest time of year for the club, last year filling 1,500 spots. The yearly membership is about 700.
“We have parent and tot programs, competitive teams, provincial teams, high school teams, birthday parties and drop ins so we do just about everything,” said Card. “We are also really happy to still be downtown because we do a lot of conditioning at the beach and with all our summer camps we go outside and take the kids to the park and that’s really nice.
“This way too, parents can walk on the beach or go and have a Starbucks.”
Last October the city had received an unsolicited offer to purchase the property which was once used as a Greyhound Bus repair shop.
Under the city’s newly created Land Disposition Policy offers must be evaluated to determine if a purchase meets the criteria required for sale which in this case at a Feb. 20 in-camera meeting council determined the offer did not.
As part of the policy, council then directed staff to issue and expression of interest (IOE) to “assess the market’s broader interest.”
Related: FitKidz takes over bus barn
Ben Johnson, manager of special projects for the city, said this week the expression of interest will likely be out sometime in mid-June.
In March, land manager Blake Laven indicated the city would like to see items such as a bridge and creek improvements in any proposals that come forward. He added the property could go commercial, residential or a mix of the two.
There would also be a public engagement process if the city does go ahead with the sale.