Cooper Aerobics Center Expands

DALLAS — The Cooper Aerobics Center announced plans this week to expand its facility to the Dallas-Forth Worth area. This is the center's first fully owned and operated expansion and is set to be opened in early 2006.

The Center, known for its nonprofit research group, the Cooper Institute, will build a new 70,000-square-foot wellness center and spa facility in McKinney, TX at Craig Ranch, a 2,000-acre development with parks, trails and a PGA Tour Tournament Players Club golf course. McKinney has a growing community with a population of 90,000 and was chosen as the location after an 18-month search.

The new facility will feature a full-service day spa, indoor jogging track, strength-training area, indoor basketball court, outdoor swimming pool, cardio equipment and an outdoor track. Member services will include educational seminars on fitness, nutrition and wellness topics, personal fitness assessments, group exercise classes and youth and other group programs.

Kenneth H. Cooper, a preventive medicine doctor who coined the word “aerobics,” founded the original Cooper Aerobics Center in 1970.