Augie In Action! Augie In Action! - Ihrsa

| IHRSA Report | Success by Association
Late last year, the News Journal of Wilmington,
Delaware, announced that the Delaware State
Police would be holding an event at the Hockessin
Athletic Club in December to collect coats for the
Salvation Army and to discuss opportunities for
the community to become more involved in
police activities.
It was just a casual, matter-of-fact news item in
the local paper, but it underscored a remarkable
accomplishment: less than six months after opening,
the Hockessin Athletic Club (HAC), a meticulously
designed $28-million multipurpose facility in
Hockessin, Delaware, was well on its way to being
much more than just a health club; it was already
becoming a significant community asset.
Of course, this feat was no mere fluke. It was, in
fact, an extremely deliberate objective—the culmination
of six years of laborious planning and design,
in concert with public officials, by two accomplished
IHRSA members—Roger Ralph, the former owner
and founder of the Bel Air Athletic Club, in Bel Air,
Maryland, one of the largest family-oriented facilities
in the nation; and Bob Carpenter, the former owner
of HAC’s predecessor, the Pike Creek Fitness Club, in
Wilmington, Delaware.
It was also very much a validation, and a shining
example, of the possibilities inherent in collaboration—
a power more commonly referred to by IHRSA as
“Success by Association.”
Before: club site
HAC Pack on Track
In creating a new club, industry veterans
rely on ‘Success by Association’
By Thomas Richards
178 Club Business International | MARCH 2008 | www.ihrsa.org
Carpenter, Ralph, GM Greg Maurer
Meeting of the minds
HAC began to take shape in 2001 when Carpenter,
considering the next phase of development for his
Pike Creek Fitness Club, sought advice from Ralph,
whom he’d met at an IHRSA convention. Ralph
observed that his former club in Bel Air might
provide Carpenter with a useful blueprint for
pursuing his goals, and Carpenter agreed. Such a
project, however, would require a massive plot of
land zoned for commercial use—a rare commodity
in Hockessin—and so, together, the two began a
quiet, improbable search for suitable property.
At the start of their quest, Carpenter and Ralph,
who quickly became partners on the project, were
unaware that the Delaware Department of Transportation
(DelDot) had recently contracted with an
engineering firm to develop 35 acres of state property,
known as Tweed’s Park, that encircled a 12-acre
private industrial plot used for activities ranging
from mushroom processing to transmission repair.
When representatives of DelDot learned of the
pair’s interest in suitable land for commercial development,
they urged them to consider purchasing
the 12-acre parcel, which had complicated DelDot’s
plans to beautify Tweed’s Park. Recognizing a good
opportunity when they saw one, Carpenter and
Ralph obliged.
Not long after their purchase of the land, Carpenter
and Ralph were summoned to the office of Delaware’s
then-Secretary of Transportation, Nathan Hayward,
who delivered a frank message: “I’ve flown over
both sites and, collectively, we’re going to have too
much asphalt. I want you to build a shared-use parking
deck that will serve the park and your club. You’ve got
the government as a neighbor, and both parties need
to look at your club and our park as two elements of
a larger picture.”