Definition Personal Fitness is moving within the Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako to a new location that’s almost four times the size of the gym’s current space, the owner told PBN Thursday.
The personal training gym, which is owned by Michele Tokuda and will be known by a new name, “Kakaako Fitness,” currently is located in a 2,100-square-foot second floor space at Ward Court near First Hawaiian Bank, where it has been since 2008.
Tokuda, a fitness industry veteran who has more than two decades of experience, told PBN that her new space, inside a contractor’s unused warehouse at 815 Waimanu St., will total about 8,000 square feet on two floors with the downstairs as a personal training gym and the upstairs for group work.
Currently, the gym has five trainers that teach various classes involving metabolic training, an off-shoot of CrossFit, that range in size between 10 and 25.
But in its new digs, it will be able to accommodate about 10 trainers and many more people.
“It would appeal to people who need the one-on-one attention, that personalized training,” said Tokuda, a Hawaii Baptist Academy and Oregon State University alumna, who has had stints fitness director at Hawaiian Telcom, and at 24-Hour Fitness. “We’re not a membership gym.”
Kakaako Fitness all came about after training her future landlord, Russell Yamamoto, co-owner of Honolulu-based RMY Construction, which is leasing out its warehouse space for the new venture.
“I had it as a storage facility initially, and then my friend wanted to lease it to store some products, but that didn’t work out,” Yamamoto told PBN. “So we’ve decided to transform our warehouse into a fitness center.”
Tokuda, who has trained such well-known Hawaii businessmen as Jay Kadowaki, owner of his own contracting firm, Hawaii housing developer Gary Furuta and Eddie Onouye, the husband of Hawaii entertainer Carole Kai, plans to open Kakaako Fitness in December.
“I will be able to reach out to the neighboring areas a little more,” she said.
Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News