There hasn’t been official word when gyms and fitness centers will reopen in Broward County, but CycleBar in Fort Lauderdale is already taking a proactive approach. It’s planning an array of cleaning and social distancing steps, but also turning to air purification technology.

It has installed a REME HALO system, which is made by RGF Environmental of Riviera Beach. REME stands for reflective electromagnetic energy. The system is placed in air ducts to produce hydro-peroxide plasma that is distributed through the air handler, the duct system and into rooms, RGF’s website says.

A CycleBar press release says REME HALO actively distributes hydro-peroxide throughout the cycling theatre, community room, and front lobby and disinfects every surface that comes in contact with the air. Hydrogen peroxide is a proven disinfectant with 99 percent efficacy in neutralizing viruses, bacteria and mold. When SARS-CoV arrived in Canada in 2003, accelerated hydrogen peroxide became the recommended disinfectant technology of choice by healthcare providers.

“Safety and the wellness of our riders and our staff is always our first priority,” says Barbara Fleming, CycleBar Fort Lauderdale franchise owner and operator. “We installed the REME HALO in order to prepare for our studio to reopen, even before we know exactly when we will start in-person classes again. We are also adding touchless hand sanitizer stations and water bottle refill stations to minimize contact. By staying ahead of the curve and planning for the future, we can make sure we are one of the safest studio workouts once we reopen.”

REME HALO is effective against particulates, microbials and gases and has been thoroughly tested to safely remove the risks of airborne and surface bacteria, mold spores and viruses, such as MRSA, e-coli, and Norwalk, the CycleBar press release said. Its benefits and features include:

• Dual ionizers to reduce airborne particulates (dust, dander, pollen, mold spores)
• Killing up to 99 percent of bacteria, mold and viruses
• Reducing sneeze germs by 99 percent in the time a sneeze can reach three feet.
• New zinc ions Killing 99 percent of viruses on surfaces through the use of zinc ions.
• Reducing odors, particulates, smoke and volatile organic compounds.

The systems have been approved by the USDA and FDA for use in food processing and manufacturing plants to reduce microbial contamination of food being processed. Cruise lines, restaurants and grocery stores use it as a safety measure against Norwalk Virus outbreaks. The U.S. military has approved it for mold reduction in field hospitals. Hospitals also use it to fight staph infections with a 99 percent reduction.

The systems are in short supply amid the current pandemic, CycleBar’s news release noted.

All of CycleBar’s classes will be launched with a minimum of six feet between riders, the company said. Cyclists will be the only ones to touch equipment after it has been sterilized. Attendees are asked to arrive early and will be released one by one in rows to facilitate social distancing.

CycleBar is located at 625 N. Federal Highway, but has a program also to rent bikes.

CycleBar also has a list of other measures it is taking, including:

• Deep cleaning of every area of the studio.
• Medical grade sanitizer, disinfectants and hand soap.
• Health checks for riders every time they book a class. The booking window has been cut from 12 hours to 4 hours to provide a shorter time for riders to confirm they are not ill.
• Allotting a half hour between all class to provide time to sanitize bikes.
• Staff will not be permitted to work if they feel ill or have a temperature and their temperature will be taken.
• Staff will be required to wear face masks/coverings as well as gloves.
• Staff/Instructors will be required to maintain 6 feet distance from each other and riders and will be assigned zones.

• Bike set up assistance will now be done visually and verbally as well as a pre-class video.
• Rider touchless check in—either on their phone using their app or upon arrival a team member will check them in.
• Pre-assigning lockers to ensure proper social distancing.
• Requesting that riders bring their own towel.
• Discontinuing post-class cold face towels.

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A big banner ad on the IT’SUGAR website  says, “Candy scented hand sanitizers available now.”

“Keep your hands clean and smelling great with your favorite candy-scented hand sanitizers. Set of four includes one each of Smarties, Icee, Dippin’ Dots and Mike and Ike. Each includes a silicone case with candy logo on front, which easily hooks onto your bags. Contains 65% alcohol,” the product description says. Each bottle is one ounce.

IT’SUGAR is based in Deerfield Beach and is owned by BBX Capital Corp. of Fort Lauderdale (NYSE: BBX).

The hand sanitizer shortage is so acute nationwide that some alcoholic beverage distilleries are starting to make hand sanitizers.

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• I was fired from a job at [age 40]. At the time, I was a single parent of a 9-year-old son. It’s very easy [when something like that happens] to climb under the covers and give up. But my father reminded me of this thing called momentum shifting. It’s a sports psychology concept. When the team is losing, the coach [shouldn’t call] them to the sideline and scream at them. You remind them of what they do well.

• My father’s other advice: Focus on what you have now and build off of that. What I had at that time was a Pilates certification. I was a really good group fitness instructor. I’ve been doing it for decades. So, I started a small group fitness class at a gym in my neighborhood. I literally started taking Pilates clients and working them out in a spare room in my home. And that’s how we started my entrepreneurial endeavors.

• I ended up opening up a small Pilates studio, but there’s no fat-burning metabolic work to Pilates. Many of my members were taking spin classes or working with personal trainers running around the park, and they still weren’t getting the results they wanted. They were frustrated, and they came to me. I looked to solve that problem.

• I studied for about eight months [to determine what would go into] this “ultimate” workout for my clients and what equipment I would bring in. Everything is based on science. You’re on the treadmill, or on the bike or strider if you have orthopedic conditions. The goal is to get those 12 minutes of heart rate over 84 percent. You’re on the rower to put wattage back in [your body]. Think of [your energy as a light bulb]. As we age, we lose wattage. That’s why we need coffee and energy drinks and all this chemical garbage to keep us going during the day. We wanted to make sure you leave the workout back as a 100-watt light bulb [and not a 40-watt light bulb].

• In the weight room, we use the TRX straps [a brand of suspension weight training], small gym equipment, dumbbells for what I call your inside muscles and your outside muscles. Your inside muscles are your posture muscles. When you look in the mirror, those are your outside muscles. Everything in that room was physiologically based. Even so, I was kind of surprised when I opened the doors, that, wow, this really took off. People were loving it.

• The husband of one of my members was involved in franchising. She loved [the workout]. And she basically said, “Ellen, one of these needs to be on every corner. This is insane. People are bribing the front desk to get into class. There are wait lists 10 deep for every class.” At the time, she said that—and this is important, and I don’t know sometimes if it’s a woman thing or just a thing that we really don’t believe in ourselves full-heartedly—I actually looked at her and I said, “April, I know nothing about franchising.” She left and walked out the door.

• I had some conversations with friends, and they were like, “Of course, you can do something like this.” When you are in that doubtful moment, support is everything. Luckily, the woman walked back in a week later. I took her husband’s name and phone number. We met, and Orangetheory was born.

• We really don’t see ourselves in the fitness business. I wanted [people] to understand that when you come into an Orangetheory Fitness studio, we’re looking at building this kind of great culture. Think back [to] the TV show Cheers. You know, when you walk in the bar, everyone knows your name. It’s kind of that type of thing. We wanted this small footprint, a 33,000-square-feet studio, where you’d come in and really bond with each other. You support each other. You’re there for each other.

• Orangetheory is never a competitive atmosphere. That’s why I hated boot camps—and I’ve been doing this for 40 years, so I’ve taught everything from the Jane Fonda leg warmer days. I didn’t like that whole “10 isn’t enough, give me 10 more” concept. I wanted to have a product where it was enough to “give us what you got and let’s keep working on just improving that.” So, you’re never competing against anyone but yourself.

• The theory of Orangetheory is to get the human heart, which is a muscle, beating over 84 percent [of your maximum heart rate] for at least 12 minutes by the end of the class. That’s what a splat point is [named for imagining the sound of a fat cell exploding]. Every time your heart rate goes over 84 percent, you get a splat point. You don’t do all 12 minutes in one bout, it’s 90 seconds here, 30 seconds there. What I know about physiology is if you give me at least 12 minutes, I can change your physiology. I can fight cellular decline—[which starts to occur] after age 30.

• I had a great interest in the science of what goes on, I wasn’t interested in a little circuit workout—a lot of people running around, a trendy workout that will be around for a short period of time. Many people say that’s probably why we were successful. Many businesses sit around and try to think about what’s [going to be] the next big thing in fitness [or in their industry] as opposed to “Let me solve a problem.”

• I opened up that studio in 2008 with the foundation of Orangetheory Fitness—not to become a franchise, not to do anything beyond solving that problem for my little studio and my Pilates members. It’s interesting what can happen when you [tackle] a problem, and then you do a pretty good job of solving it.

The creator and co-founder of Orangetheory Fitness earned her master’s degree in exercise science from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Orangetheory, founded in 2010 and based in Boca Raton, has grown to more than 1,300 studios and 1 million members; it’s in 23 countries, and workouts are done in eight languages.

Latham is the author of Push: A Guide to Living an All Out Life. Her mantra is to “look at what you have, not at what you don’t have.”

Orangetheory exceeded $1 billion in system-wide sales in 2018; its goal is to operate 2,500 studios with 2.5 million members by 2024.

The post How Ellen Latham created Orangetheory Fitness appeared first on Lifestyle Media Group.

This listing is especially interesting because it’s a long-term leasehold interest with over 100 years remaining on the ground lease. The buyer also shouldn’t expect Walgreens to depart so it can be replaced by a trendy luxury retailer who will pay more in rent.

“This flagship Walgreens is one of the retailer’s top-performing Southeast locations,” said Simon Jonna, senior managing director investments in Marcus & Millichap’s Detroit office. Simon  and Raymond Jonna are representing the seller, a private Miami-based developer. Ryan Nee, first vice president and regional manager of Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Lauderdale office, is the firm’s broker of record in Florida.

“Walgreens is committed to an absolute net lease that has over 21 years remaining on the base term and includes 10 five-year options with rare 10 percent rent increases every 10 years, including option periods,” Simon Jonna said in a press release. “The current rent is well below market-rate. The property’s irreplaceable urban-core location puts it in an excellent position to grow with rents and inflation for generations to come.”

The location is about as prime as it gets in South Florida. In addition to being underneath the Ritz, it’s on the corner of Collins Avenue and adjacent to the Lincoln Road Mall. Luxury hotels nearby include the Lowes Miami Beach, Delano South Beach, SLS South Beach, and Hyatt Centric.

Jeremy Larkin, co-chairman of NAI Miami Commercial Real Estate Services Worldwide, likes the site in the heart of tourist land, calling it a “100 percent location.”

So, who might be willing to pay somewhere near $78.89 million? A buyer with a long-term horizon, Larkin says. “If you are an opportunistic buyer, a flipper in three of five years, it’s a horrible deal.”

The property could be attractive to a high net worth investor looking for preservation of capital, Larkin says.  One challenge for that class of investor is finding something that can safely generate 5 or 6 percent returns. Although the base terms of the lease are for 21 years, those 10 percent increases would kick in over the 10 year-periods.

That’s why the right buyer might be willing to pay more than what a typical market price would be, he says.

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The company is pledging to donate at least 5 percent of profits back to the community during 2019.

“It all goes back to our original mission to make the world a better place, by empowering critical causes with positive change,” President Andrew Koenig says.

The company identified five pillars for its effort and a video on the company’s Facebook page gave examples of how it is already doing so:

• Home: Uplifting the people that live in our community. City Furniture has worked with Habitat for Humanity in this regard.
• Health: Raising funds to foster physical and mental health. The company has previously worked with the American Heart Association on its Heart Walk and the American Heart Association on its Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.
• Service: Honoring veterans, first responders, and all who sacrifice. The company seeks to employ veterans and has an effort in Central Florida to recognize veterans at sports games.
• Diversity: Empowering equality through activism and outreach. The company works with the Urban League and Anti Defamation League.
• Education: Developing a brighter future through knowledge and safety. The company is involved with Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University and the Broward County School System.

“This pledge goes back all the way to my uncle Kevin Koenig, the founder of City Furniture and my father, Keith Koenig, who grew the company with him,” Andrew Koenig said in the video.

When the company first made a profit, it made a donation to Covenant House, which helps homeless youths, Koenig said. The video shows a giant check to Covenant House with $1 million as the value.

During a 2014 CEO Connect interview, Keith Koenig talked with Lifestyle’s sister magazine South Florida Business and Wealth about his charitable work, which resulted in a Gregory the Great Award from Pope John Paul II.

“Most of our charitable work didn’t stream from anything other than a willingness to accept some responsibility,” Koenig said. “I remember our kids were 2 and 4 and our friends said, ‘You ought to go to the Discovery Center.’ We took our kids down there and they loved it. Next thing our friends asked: ‘Do you want to be on the board?’ And the next thing: ‘We are going to build a new museum – you gotta do this and that.’ Then, we built a $37 million museum. Along the way, we have developed so many friends. That’s how you build a community. We are not stars or anything; we just tried to help out when we could.”

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In 1927, Sheriff Paul Bryan was arrested on federal bootlegging charges. Walter Clark served from 1933 to 1951, but admitted to the federal Kefauver Commission that he profited from illegal gambling.

Nick Navarro gained national attention in the 1980s by starring in the first season of “Cops” and having a crime lab that cooked up crack cocaine to use in stings.

Ken Jenne resigned in 2007 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud.

So, there’s no wonder that current Sheriff Scott Israel has been under the media microscope since assuming office in 2013.

An ethics complaint said Israel should have declared a higher value for a trip his family took with campaign supporter Robert Pereira on his yacht. 

The Florida Commission on Ethics didn’t take any action because Israel relied on advice from his attorney, who said $1,500 was equivalent to cruise ship pricing, and the sheriff lacked experience as an elected official.

Before the ethics commission ruled, Israel said, “Just the fact that some people looked at it a certain way … if I had it to do over again I wouldn’t have gone on the trip.”

Afterwards, he said, “If you have a problem with the valuation that was OK. I was in safe harbor because I acted according to what the attorney told me to do.”

Some other reports about Israel have been wildly inaccurate, including one that said he was in a luxury suite at the Super Bowl with Pereira when he was actually at a Sheriffs Association conference. 

All American boy

Going beyond the headlines and meeting Israel in person, one is struck by how the former college quarterback is a grown up version of the “All American Boy.” Israel and his wife Susan, who helps manage his packed schedule, have a busy family life with three triplets, Brett, Blake and Blair. Brett was the junior starting quarterback for Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, Blake was a midfielder for the lacrosse team and a safety on the football team and Blair was a sprinter on the track team before hurting her foot.

It’s not easy being the sheriff’s kid, Brett says, “You have to be on your best behavior.”

Susan Israel says her husband is a dedicated father and tells how he used to pack up the triplets and take them to the gym when they were infants so she could have a break.

“The girls would go, ‘My husband won’t even watch one. Does he have any brothers?”

Reaching the top

Scott Israel previously served as a commander at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and chief of the North Bay Village Police Department, but the sheriff’s department is much bigger.

The department controls just over half of the county’s $3.7 billion budget and has 6,000 members.

“It’s challenging, rewarding, it’s tough,” Israel says. “I don’t think anyone can anticipate the pace of being sheriff.”

There’s also the reality of getting called out of bed in the middle of the night if there’s a police involved shooting.

 “It’s very important to me that I let the men and women know I care what happened,” Israel says.

Jeff Marano, president of the Broward Police Benevolent Association, said Israel always shows up if there’s a police involved shooting, which the PBA does as well.

“It’s a terrible thing to take a life, but with the current sheriff and the staff the shooters are treated with respect and not looked at like they did something wrong,” Marano said.

The PBA leader said he went to police academy with Israel 35 years ago and still describes him as a jock and an energetic individual.

“He has not changed one iota,” Marano said.

It’s tougher for Israel to work out now after having a spinal fusion eight years ago. While working for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, a fleeing suspect knocked into him and they both fell down a flight of stairs.

Second run for office

Israel lost in his first run for sheriff’s office in 2008 against Republican Al Lamberti, who had been appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist to replace Jenne. Lamberti blasted Israel with negative campaign ads and some political observers credited political strategist Roger Stone with helping out.

However, Lamberti made some enemies in Broward’s Democratic dominated politics. Ron Gunzberger, the son of county commissioner Sue Gunzberger, led Israel’s second successful campaign in 2012.

Israel told 28 members of Lamberti’s staff that they would be dismissed if they didn’t resign and Lamberti authorized the payment of $4.3 million to 53 departing employees.

“The place kind of got gutted. Who knows what walked out the door,” Marano said.

Israel said Lamberti wouldn’t allow him access to the department during the eight weeks between the election and his assuming office, so he spent a lot of time thinking about intelligence led policing. He says 6 percent of the criminal element commits 69 percent of the violent crime.

Israel’s Violence Intervention Proactive Enforcement Response (VIPER) program works to execute more warrants and cultivate sources to take down that 6 percent. The program resulted in 400 arrests in nine months and overall violent crime is down 12.3 percent since Israel took office, he says.

The bottom line is that the Broward County Sheriffs Office exists for two reasons, Israel says. “One is to reduce crime and the other is to enhance the quality of life of the citizens of Broward County. I understand the power of the position, but I’m just an old fashioned street cop who wants to make the streets safe.”

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