GW’s Health and Wellness Center will open in mid-June, hosting only GW students, faculty and staff, said Tony Vecchione, assistant athletic director for facilities. He said the new facility could still have a partial opening, which GW officials had originally scheduled for April.

Zoning restrictions prohibit the University from allowing people outside the University community from using the facilities, and restrict operations to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 p.m. on Sundays.

“Sure we’d love to (have people outside the community) use the facility,” Vecchione said. “It’s zoned for faculty, staff and student use only, and it’s something we’d like to work out later on.”

But Chris Lamb, who was president of the Foggy Bottom Association when the Health and Wellness Center was approved, said he does not think neighborhood residents would want to use the building.

“There wasn’t an outcry in the neighborhood to use the facility,” Lamb said.

Veccione said hours restrictions place limitations on student activities such as intramural sports because the Smith Center usually remains open until 12:30 a.m.

“Students are looking to recreate, and the intramurals run late,” he said. “If you don’t have the hours, you limit the number that can participate.”

Vecchione said the University must wait for a more appropriate time to propose extending the hours to neighborhood residents.

“Once the neighborhood and the community get comfortable with the building and the way it is operated, they will see it’s not really infringing on the neighborhood,” he said. “Everybody wins – the neighborhood, the students and the University.”

Lamb said residents would have less of an objection to longer hours if the University had placed the building closer to the center of campus instead of on its fringe.

The state-of-the-art complex – for which students will pay $7.50 a credit hour up to $112.50 a semester – will replace the Smith Center as the campus’s main recreational and fitness facility.

Andre Julien, assistant athletic director for health and wellness, will manage the new building. Although GW’s athletic department has not determined the number of employees who will work in the building or a definite budget, Julien said he started assembling a new staff for the building.

Julien said he plans to hire six exercise science majors who hope to achieve national certification to work as trainers.

The building will include a three-level parking garage, and the third level will house four racquetball courts.

The ground floor will house a fitness center, free-weight room, three-lane lap pool and locker rooms – a regular locker room, an auxiliary locker room, for men and women and a family locker room.

Preparations on the fitness room are nearing completion. Equipment fills the room, including 10 treadmills, 10 elliptical machines, 10 Stairmasters and a set of reclined and regular bikes. Students using the machines can watch a set of 20 televisions, and receive sound from each TV using different frequencies on their own personal radio.

The fitness room will also house a set of 11 Ground Zero and 25 LifeFitness circuit training machines that target specific parts of the body, making up two state-of-the-art systems, said Jason Wilson, operations manager for the athletic department.

“We’ve gone to every facility including L.A. Fitness in the Ritz Carlton,” Wilson said. “We think we’re competing with everyone just on what we have available. We have more options.”

“It will be one of the nicest weight rooms you’ll find in this area,” said Scott Bokker, events manager for the athletic department.

The free-weight room, which will be divided by a glass partition from the fitness center, will provide seven Olympic-style benches and two Smith Machines for a variety of exercises.

The gym will also offer a set of preset curl bars ranging between five and 120 pounds.

“If a piece goes down, we try to anticipate those problems and deal with them in a much more efficient manner so there’s no down time,” Wilson said.

The second floor will house offices and a bagel and juice bar, although Wilson said the University has not finalized the proposal. The floor will also include two multipurpose rooms, one of which will contain bicycles for a spinning class, an aerobic exercise based on bikes.

“(Spinning) will be part of our regular sports classes that will be offered by the recreation and sports department,” Julien said.

The third floor will have three squash courts and a basketball court that is shorter than regulation size length, Wilson said.

A three-lane track will hang over the basketball court, with Mondo flooring, a soft rubber to protect knees.

The third floor will also house several extra fitness machines for students who want to exercise outside the fitness room, or when the room is filled.

Completion for the third and fourth floors are off schedule, Wilson said, because the wood for the basketball court needs to acclimate to its environment before it can be laid. This requires the heating and air conditioning system to function normally, he said.

The fourth floor will contain an extra basketball court and three extra squash courts.

Vecchione said there is still the possibility for a partial opening for the lower level and ground floor, but it depends on whether the University can complete the project enough to get a partial occupancy permit.

He said the building will compete with local fitness clubs.

“A lot of people belong to clubs … hopefully this will attract those people back to campus,” Vecchione said.