Get Fit Yelm proposes aquatics center, fitness facility to Yelm City Council

During a Yelm City Council study session on Tuesday, Sept. 2, Get Fit Yelm owner Kasey Cartledge stood before the council and other city officials to present a proposal for a new fitness facility and aquatics center.

Cartledge, a Yelm resident for the last 15 years and owner of Get Fit Yelm and Get Fit Tenino, said the organization has proven longevity by bringing health and fitness to the Yelm community for 21 years. The gym previously ran under the name Fit Stop 24 and was open at the current Long Shot location near Walmart.

“I’m here today to not ask the city blindly to fund a desperately needed aquatics and wellness center, but to propose a partnership that’s already been tried, tested and evolved in a town not far from our own. This agreement has shown to be successful in the City of Centralia and the local business it’s partnered with, and the community members as a whole,” Cartledge said. “We’ve proven ourselves as a longstanding resource to the community to maintain and improve health and fitness. I’ve personally worked for the company for the past 14 years, and I have over 20 years in the fitness industry. I’ve worked for large corporate gyms, privately owned franchises, small independently owned gyms like my own. I definitely prefer the atmosphere of the small local gym. We serve the community a little differently than those large corporate gyms.”

She purchased Get Fit Yelm in 2022, and noted that the membership rate has nearly doubled since then. According to Cartledge, 1,100 community members are served at the Yelm location, and over 300 members work out at the Tenino location.

According to Cartledge, Get Fit Yelm is the only facility in town that offers both child care and saunas. The gym recognizes that Yelm is a large military community, and with constant deployments and out-of-state training, she believes child care has become an asset for those families.

Additionally, Get Fit Yelm already has experience being insured with saunas, and boasts a “great track record” around the gym feature.

“At our core, we exist to uplift the health and wellness of the small communities we serve — body, mind and spirit. Our doors are open to members of every age and every stage of their wellness journey, offering not just a place to workout but a place to improve their quality of life,” Cartledge said. “We strive to be a hub of connection, growth and support — where fitness meets community, and community becomes family. Beyond our walls, we invest in the heart of our towns through philanthropy, outreach and local events, ensuring that the positive impact we create inside our fitness center radiates outward, building a stronger, healthier and more connected community for all.”

In the proposed facilities, Cartledge included a six lane, 25-meter pool, which ranges in depth and features an 82-degree temperature. Additionally, she proposed a junior pool, hot tub and accessories such as a sauna, slides, diving boards and party rooms. Also included in the proposal is an attached fitness center with locker rooms, a group fitness room, a gym floor, child care, personal training, a yoga room, smoothies and supplements, and more. An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 square feet are needed to create this facility, and the business owner estimated a need of 5 acres of land.

Cartledge also believes a partnership between Get Fit Yelm, the City of Yelm and Yelm Community Schools could be set up in a similar fashion to the agreement at Centralia’s Thorbeckes.

“I am proposing that we partner, similar to Thorbeckes, which is a privately owned athletic club similar to my own. It has partnered with the City of Centralia and their school district. It started in 1989, and the city had built a pool facility with a general wide open structure, similar to my gym. They were not interested in running the gym side. They wanted to manage the pool, so it was a simple lease agreement,” Cartledge said. “Thorbeckes leased the open fitness center and the racketball courts from the city. I believe it’s actually owned by the school district. They gave 25% of their membership profits back to the school district and the city for their members to use the pool, that way there was no separation in everything. The city still got a kickback for the extra use, and Thorbeckes got to lease their building out to a successful business. It was very symbiotic and mutually beneficial.”

She added that she’d like to propose something similar, where Get Fit Yelm would be donating a large amount of membership profits back to the City of Yelm’s Parks and Recreation Department. Cartledge also compared the current YCS budget cuts to financial cuts experienced 25 years ago in Centralia.

“In 2000, the city and school district faced budget cuts similar to our current school district. Thorbeckes offered, at that point, to manage the pool they could no longer afford to manage. They completely revamped that symbiotic, mutually beneficial agreement. Thorbeckes took over the daily management, and it was very hands off from the city,” she said. “In exchange, they also handled the staffing, collected all the payments and did all the accounting. Instead of giving 25% of memberships, they paid back 1% of their gross profits to the city each year back towards that parks fund.

“Ultimately, current time, how it is ran, Thorbeckes invoices their utilities. The school district and the city refund Thorbeckes for their third share,” she later added. “Thorbeckes handles all daily operations for maintenance and costs associated with that, and up to $6,000 per year in repairs.”

Cartledge noted that anything after $6,000 of repairs would be split equally three ways by the parties involved. With a new Get Fit Yelm facility and new partnerships in place, she believes a number of needs will be met, such as swimming lessons, the debut of a swim team and water polo team, lap swim and family swim opportunities, community fundraisers, water safety classes, lifeguard training, birthday parties, low impact fitness classes, senior fitness and mobility therapy, and children’s occupational therapy.

“I just need the shell. This would be my responsibility to build out,” Cartledge said. “We have truly thrived. We’ve grown. We’ve improved our equipment. We’ve added facilities and staffing, and we are now outgrowing our facility. We have three years left on our lease, and we need space to grow as the business continues to grow … My support network is another major factor. I have entered into a support network of other gyms. Some of them are nonprofit. Some of them are Crossfit gyms, and some of them are gyms like mine. Others already own pools. Many of these people say it’s a successful gym owners group whose sole purpose is to teach and learn from each other.”

She added she’s spent a lot of time researching the partnerships she proposed and how they can be mutually beneficial to all parties involved.

According to Cartledge, the project cost would be “up to the city and possibly school partnerships” based on what the two parties would like to see built. She had property acquisition projected at $0, and says YCS could partner through a land donation. The district would be able to host physical education classes and have a swim team.

She noted that annual insurance would cost between $4,500 and $6,000, and that the facility build out varies from an estimated $10 million to $30 million.

“I don’t plan on providing everything a Y does. I have no interest in running ball courts or fields or indoor racketball courts,” Cartledge said. “I just need a gym and a pool. It does actually lower the cost a little bit, and I’m willing to build out the interior of my fitness center, which again, reduces cost to the city.”

She added that annual operating costs would vary on the facilities provided, and noted it would range anywhere between $150,000 and $300,000. Cartledge believes there’s an opportunity for a symbiotic mutual benefit, such as a park improvement trust fund or Yelm schools trust fund.

“Should (YCS) see the value in it, Yelm Schools could provide a trust fund that would kick back to the students in technology, grounds, buildings, athletics, extracurriculars — similar to the park improvement trust fund that’s proposed as the city of Centralia did,” she said.

Cartledge suggested several locations for the proposed facility, including near Yelm High School in “Tornado Alley,” a street that connects Tahoma Boulevard to YHS. She highlighted a second location, also near YHS, off Burnett Road.
The third proposed location is near the end of the future Yelm Bypass on state Route 510 on “large parcels of land.” She believes there would be an opportunity for partnership with other local organizations, such as Total Sports Development or YARD Campus, to add ball fields and other amenities.

“The three of us, partnered, we would all fit there and it would be a destination that people travel to — similar to the RAC in Lacey, Sprinkler (in Spanaway), and other large athletic complexes,” she said.