Fitness Cartel officially reopened its Maroochydore club on Saturday 25 July, capping off a $3.6 million refurbishment. Founder and CEO Nathan James spoke to What’s New in Fitness about the reinvestment, the new demographic it’s already drawing in, and what smaller gym operators can take from it.
“Phenomenal,” is how James described reopening weekend. “We had lots of very excited and very surprised people to see how much it’s changed in that short period of time.”
Maroochydore's History as an Original Fitness Cartel Club
Maroochydore holds a particular place in the Fitness Cartel story. It’s one of the brand’s original clubs, rebranded in 2021 alongside its Tweed Heads location. Five years on, it’s had a near-total rebuild across almost 3,000sqm, including a new 500sqm mezzanine, three purpose-built studios, a recovery zone and six-star-style change rooms, all delivered while the club stayed open and trading.
“We did it as it was operating, so it was a very complex renovation,” James said. Full shutdowns were rare, with just four overnight closures across the entire build, run between roughly 9pm and 4am to avoid disrupting members.
What's New at Fitness Cartel Maroochydore
The headline additions:
- A 20-bed Reformer Pilates studio, offering both instructor-led and virtual classes, included as part of Fitness Cartel’s reformer membership
- A dedicated cycle studio with virtual-enabled classes
- A fully renovated group fitness studio
- A Hot Rock Sauna and ice shower recovery zone
- A new 500sqm mezzanine training level
- Over 400 pieces of equipment in total, with 50 new pieces added as part of the refurbishment
- Six-star-style change rooms, including GHD hair straighteners and Dyson Airwrap styling stations
- An upgraded reception, crèche, outdoor training area and refreshed posing room
A New Membership Demographic Walking Through the Door
The most interesting line from James wasn’t about the equipment. It was about who showed up.
“It’s quite surprising. A lot of new members, it’s a different demographic from normal, which is more mature ladies,” James said. “They sort of congregated in company groups and then they’ll go and have coffees together. It’s a real shift in the lifestyle thing.”
Fitness Cartel’s existing membership base at Maroochydore typically spans two brackets, roughly 18 to 28 and a second pocket up to 45 to 50, with the reformer and cycle studios now widening that range further.
James credits some of Maroochydore’s pulling power to location, pointing to consistent, warm coastal weather that keeps people training year-round compared with clubs in colder climates that see seasonal drop-off.
Advice for Gym Owners on a Smaller Renovation Budget
The $3.6 million figure didn’t start there. “It started at 2.1 million,” James admitted. “It’s kind of like when you’re renovating your house, the more you do, the more you add.”
Asked what a gym owner with a smaller budget should prioritise, James pointed to members rather than equipment or studio formats.
“I would go to my members. I always go to our members, and we did in this circumstance, because what we’re doing is no different from a smaller facility. I’ve had smaller businesses too, and the formula is still the same,” he said. “You go back to the customers, the ones there, and you ask them for feedback. They’ll tell you stuff you don’t want to hear, but that’s where the juicy good stuff is. You don’t need to spend a lot of money or a lot of time. You can get high-impact things from really listening to the customer and saying, ‘we heard you, and this is what we’re working on.’ I think that’s the best bang for buck.”
The Challenges of Renovating a Gym While It Stays Open
Rebuilding around an operating club, rather than shutting down, was the hardest part of the project. “Imagine it’s going to cost you three times as much as you think it would, the return on profits about half as much as you thought, and triple the amount of work,” James said. “This was quadruple.”
Adding the 500sqm mezzanine inside a trading facility meant constantly relocating equipment and re-coordinating the training floor around members. “We’re very lucky the members were so understanding,” he said. The alternative, a full shutdown, risked pushing members toward competitors during the closure, on top of lost income and disruption to staff.
James credits regular communication with the team for getting through the project cleanly, including consistent meetings to flag what was changing next and where things stood. The design itself was handled in-house, drawing on James’s background running World Gym Australia (30 clubs) and Genesis Fitness Clubs before founding Fitness Cartel.
Fitness Cartel's Growth Target Remains on Track
James confirmed Fitness Cartel’s target of 60 clubs by 2029 remains current, with 20 clubs set to be open by the end of this year. A new Toowoomba club is due to open within the next few weeks.
Why Big Gyms Are Bringing Boutique Studios In-House
The strategic story behind the refit extends beyond Maroochydore. For years, boutique reformer, cycle and recovery studios have chipped away at large clubs’ market share by offering formats generalist gyms didn’t have. Fitness Cartel’s response at Maroochydore is to build reformer, cycle and recovery experiences directly into the core membership rather than losing that member to a studio down the road.
Key Takeaways for Australian Gym Owners
Whether or not a $3.6 million refit is on the cards, the underlying lessons scale down:
- Ask your members before you spend anything. James’s own advice points to direct member feedback as the highest-ROI move available, regardless of budget.
- A live renovation carries a retention risk beyond logistics. Extended closures are a negative member experience, and can push members toward competitors, so staging work around trading hours protects both revenue and membership.
- Recovery facilities are becoming standard inclusions, with sauna and cold-exposure zones showing up across full-service clubs rather than staying exclusive to boutique studios.
- An existing site can be your best growth asset. A well-located, established club with trading history and member goodwill can outperform a new build when backed with real investment.
Fitness Cartel Plans a Standalone Wellness Concept for Maroochydore
James also flagged a separate development for the region: a new wellness spa opening in Maroochydore before the end of the year, independent of the gym itself. Described as a “full bougie luxe, hot-cold type wellness centre” featuring ice baths and sauna, members will be able to access it under a combined membership or at discounted rates.
“This is the new billion-dollar fad,” James said. “Multi-trillion-dollar.”
Fitness Cartel currently counts roughly 70,000 members nationally, with around 7,000 visits a week.
Fitness Cartel Health Clubs is one of Australia’s leading gym networks, delivering premium training environments, elite equipment and a genuine sense of community across its growing footprint. Founded on the Sunshine Coast, where the Maroochydore club opened the Fitness Cartel story in the early 2020s, the brand has since expanded across Southeast Queensland, WA, NZ and is home to the Merse Wellness recovery and bathhouse concept.
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