In one of the biggest ever investments into the UAE fitness industry, GymNation, the homegrown UAE fitness brand, has today completed a major real estate acquisition to facilitate its Motor City site expansion.

As part of the purchase from National Properties, the real estate arm of National Bonds Corporation, GymNation has acquired the full floor of its current Motor City gym, located in Control Tower, as well as the real estate on the floor above which is currently home to the Fitness First Motor City branch.GymNationwill be investing upwards of AED 70millioninto this landmark expansion project to merge the two gym floors together and increase their gym from 30,000 sq ft to over 55,000 sq ft.

This investment will create one of the largest and most comprehensive gyms in the world, and allows GymNation to use the extra space for more gym equipment and to expand its fitness offering, including dedicated Reformer Pilates, boxing, wellness and BLITZ Boutique HIIT studios, the UAE’s largest recovery facility, including sauna, ice baths, sports massage and assisted stretching, as well as Dubai’s first indoor uphill running track, and the first dedicated Hyrox Performance Centre in the Middle East.

Fitness First has been served an eviction notice, with work on the new enlarged GymNation facility anticipated to commence imminently.

Loren Holland, Founder and CEO, GymNation said, “GymNation Motor City is one of our best-performing locations,but we are now capacity-constrained to meet the demand from what is a rapidly growing catchment area, so this is a great move for the business, our members and for the wider community.

“The acquisition of our existing real estate guarantees the long-term security of our Motor City location, whilst the acquisition of the Fitness First space allows us to almost double the size of our gym and create one of the most advanced and well-invested fitness facilities in the world. We are incredibly passionate about the continual evolution of our product and want to provide GymNation members with access to truly world-class facilities at the most affordable price.  We also have other exciting enhancements to announce for some of our other existing Dubai and Abu Dhabi gyms in the coming months. Whilst we are committed to a significant expansion plan this year, having recently opened in Al Ain and with twelve more locations in fit-out, we will continue to reinvest in our existing sites to ensure the GymNation product continues to evolve and develop enabling us to provide the best possible member experience and the best value offering in the industry.We are excited to continue championing healthy and active lifestyles and supporting the communities we serve to become better versions of themselves, no matter what their fitness goals,” continued Holland.

GymNation were advised on the acquisition by leading commercial real estate broker David Abood from Cushman & Wakefield, and lawyer Sean Cope from DLA Piper.