Politics & Government

TITLE Boxing Club Hits Royal Oak

Planning commissioners think fitness center is a "knockout" idea for downtown.

The Royal Oak Planning Commission gave TITLE Boxing Club its OK Tuesday to locate on the ground floor at 409 S. Center St., beneath the Douglas J. Aveda Institute.

Owner Anne Belec said 2,500-square feet fitness center will specialize in aerobic conditioning, core strength, total body fitness, agility and coordination using heavy boxing bags as props.

"There is no sparring, no fighting going on in the club," Belec said.

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The target audience is 80 percent female and members burn as many as 1,000 calories in group boxing and kickboxing classes called "power hours."

Different colored boxing gloves are supplied during the first workout to let trainers know to give extra attention to those people during the class. Each class is an hour long with a 15-minute warm-up, 30-minutes on the bag followed by 15-minutes of core and cool-down.

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"The clubs are designed to promote community in a family atmosphere," Belec said. "Individual and family memberships are offered and family memberships include children as young as 8 years old."

TITLE Boxing Club is based in Kansas and is also owned by retired professional boxer Danny Campbell, businessmen Tom Lyons and Rick Washburn and Title Boxing Company, the world’s largest distributor of boxing, kickboxing and MMA equipment, apparel and accessories.

The company currently has more than 90 locations nationwide, including locations in Ann Arbor, Brighton and Farmington Hills.

"This is a funny space that we have had in our community for a long time," said Mayor Jim Ellison, who is a member of the planning commission. "There have been a number of attempts to put something in there but we never really found the right fit. This is a really interesting and unique and creative use of that space."

"This idea is going to be a real knockout in the city," added Commissioner Jim Rasor.

Belec said the plan is to open in September. Visit titleboxingclub.com for more information and testimonials.


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