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24. Describe your approach to managing resident leisure amenities including gym, pool and spa. How do you approach recovery of running costs and drive value from memberships?
We do not normally charge a fee for leisure amenities. Running costs are predominantly covered by the service charge. Normal practice would be to engage an expert to manage the amenities. This is because of issues such as health and safety. We always look for a specialist, as it is not in the residents’ best interests for an estate team to manage a swimming pool.
This also means it is easier to drive value for members. For instance, by having trained specialists onsite to give lessons and additional services, such a beauty treatments. This could also generate additional income, by making these paid-for services. We do not recommend opening the amenities to members of the public as this would pose a potential security rick.
At one of our large London developments, we have made the leisure facilities a community hub. We did this by encouraging residents’ groups to use the spaces, as well as holding our own events there. With a development like the Acanthus Project, which has residents from housing associations, we realise
that this might be complicated. Often affordable providers do not want to contribute to the costs of fitness centres. There are other avenues which would enable the Housing Association to pay lower costs and give their tenants limited access to the facilities.
This depends on your preferences. Some developments place a premium on the exclusivity of their facilities, others focus on using these amenities to create community.
One thing that we do recommend is to ensure that gym management company is separate from the company that manages the assets. The amenities should also have regular audits from the management company to ensure the leisure facilities provide value for membership.
We would propose to provide a significantly more detailed response within Phase Two of the tender, should we qualify for further response.
Mainstay: Response to Tender | Project Acanthus - Part Two
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