The family-oriented club spent $1 million on a new look.

HUDSON, Ohio - LifeCenter plus Health & Fitness Center needed a facelift. Once a skating rink, the club's building resembled an old airport hangar - made of tin and devoid of windows.

"Our outside didn't reflect what we are," said Jan Rubins, the club's owner and general manager.

Since passersby often had no idea that the facility housed a full-service, family-oriented club with 4,700 members, LifeCenter decided on a change. A $1 million change. "We did a complete exterior renovation," Rubins said.

The renovation gave LifeCenter a whole new look. The club bid farewell to the tin and added bay windows to let the sunshine in. It also redid the roofing, the front-desk area and the locker rooms.

The renovations weren't strictly for aesthetics. The 54,000-square-foot facility grew to 58,000 square feet, allowing the club to add a 30-foot climbing wall and an area for youth fitness. Upstairs, the club put in three conference rooms that can be used for group exercise classes or opened up to the community and local businesses that need meeting space.

One of the club's unique features, a computer lab, also benefited from the renovation. The old lab contained six computers that the club used to teach classes on Windows, the Internet and similar topics. The new lab has room for an additional two to four computers. This means more people can take the classes, which are open to both members and nonmembers (nonmembers pay more). The club also offers free lab time that allows members to practice on the computers.

With all of the additions and revamping, LifeCenter is no longer ignored. In fact, people now stop Rubins to tell him how great the building looks. "It's the talk of the community," he claimed.

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