Colorado Real Estate Journal -
March 15 was the compliance date for using the new 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act standards for new construction, alterations, program accessibility and barrier removal. These new standards contain elements that were not in the original 1991 standards and include public accommodations. I am sure you are asking yourself, what is a public accommodation? Under ADA definition, a public accommodation is a private entity that owns, operates, leases, or leases to, a place of public accommodation. This means that both a landlord who leases space in a building to a tenant and the tenant who operates a place of public accommodations are responsible for removing barriers. To be defined as a place of public accommodation, a facility must fall into at least one of 12 categories. Categories include a wide range of entities, like places of lodging, service establishments, and places of exercise or recreation. Now that we have established what a public accommodation is and have identified that fitness centers are categorized as a place of public accommodation, you are probably wondering what the guidelines are for removing barriers in your fitness center. To remove barriers, the ADA calls for equipment to have an accessible route to at least one type of each unique piece of exercise equipment. An accessible route is considered to be a clear space at a minimum of 30 inches wide by 48 inches long where a person in a wheelchair could position himself for transfer to the equipment. For example, if a fitness center has five treadmills, three cross-trainers, one upright bike and one recumbent bike, the ADA would call for one treadmill, one cross-trainer, one upright bike and one recumbent bike to be accessible. For strength equipment, since each piece is considered unique, each piece has to be accessible following the new ADA standards. We have been working diligently with clients to help ensure that their fitness centers are ADA compliant. “Sometimes it is a challenge to get existing facilities compliant since they have accumulated so much equipment over the years,” said Ryan Lenderman, an AEE sales consultant specializing in the Colorado hospitality market. “Many of these fitness centers do not have adequate space to meet these new regulations, so we have to create solutions that offer the same workout options with fewer machines.” Our recent work at a local hotel is a great example of removing barriers, ensuring that the fitness center is now ADA compliant. The problem wasn’t that the facility had equipment that needed replacing; it just had too much equipment for the space. We sat down with the director of engineering at the hotel and really looked at which strength machines were being used and which exercises the guests enjoyed most. After the evaluation process, we came back with some layout options for the hotel to review. These options included the new Life Fitness Cable Motion dual-adjustable pulley machine, which allows for multiple exercises from the same machine and really seemed to make sense for the hotel. The facility also removed the pieces that weren’t being utilized to create more space. The end result was a safer workout room that maximized the guest experience at the hotel. Kent Collins, director of National Accounts at Life Fitness, said Life Fitness was extremely busy leading up to the March 15 ADA deadline. Life Fitness has done close to 1,000 revised layouts for customers, including Marriott, Starwood and Hyatt, over the past months. Greg Leonard, the general manager at the Grand Hyatt Denver, was one of those customers. “With the expansion of the fitness center at Grand Hyatt Denver, we worked extensively with Advanced Exercise Equipment. Their efforts made the installation of an expansive and varied selection of exercise equipment much faster and more efficient. AEE is safety conscious and well versed in the detailed requirements that make a facility ADA compliant.”