By: 21 January 2020
Wake Smith supports Firehouse Fitness expansion

A fitness firm with three gyms in Yorkshire has doubled the size of one of its Sheffield premises with the help of Wake Smith Solicitors.

Firehouse Fitness, which was founded in 2013, has moved into a 10,000 sq ft unit on Meadowbrook Park in Sheffield—just across the car park from its current smaller base.

A six figure-plus investment has seen the unit transformed into a fitness hub for the 12 staff and 750 current members and will allow further delivery of the group, personal training and high-intensity classes based around firefighter training methods and values.

Sheffield’s Wake Smith acted for Firehouse Fitness, which also has a base at Centaur House in Leeds city centre and its B-Fit UK operation at Hillsborough in Sheffield.

Firehouse Fitness managing director Shane Beard said: “From the outset, our mission was to create a fitness experience that is warm, welcoming and inclusive. Our ethos was to create a boutique gym that was more than just a place to exercise, but where clients felt valued, had a sense of camaraderie, and belonging. This has proved a winning formula for us.

“Our popularity has seen us outgrow our current premises on Meadowbrook Park. We knew the unit opposite would give us a larger base to allow us to grow and offer more classes, an even better service and more opportunities to work with the community and charities.

“We want our new gym to focus on the best of everything—from our more traditional group fitness classes and personal trainer sessions to the more holistic approaches such as yoga, to fantastic spaces to exercise and relax in.”

“Our new location, now substantially refurbished ready for the January 2020 gym rush, allows us to improve and extend our training and classes offering and long term we hope to increase the number of staff working there up to 20.”

Beard added: “Working with Wake Smith was fantastic. Paul Gibbon in commercial property team advised us on the lease. He is a great operator and genuinely cared about the work and what he was doing. I never thought it was just a tick-box exercise for him.”

Gibbon, who is a director in Wake Smith’s commercial property division, said: “We were really pleased to be able to advise Shane on the unit’s lease and their exciting plans for the future.”

“This is a progressive step forward in the firm’s development and wish them the best of luck.”

In December, Nick Lambert, chairman of Wake Smith, announced his retirement after nearly four decades in the law.

Lambert, a commercial litigation solicitor, has been with the Sheffield law firm for 12 years since it merged with Tofields in 2007. He also supervised the incorporation of Wake Smith Solicitors Limited in 2015 and the city centre move for the firm in 2016.

He will retire from the firm and the profession completely at the end of April 2020. Corporate team director John Baddeley has taken over as chairman and fellow litigator Elizabeth Shaw has become head of the litigation department.

Pictured: Rob McGuigan of Firehouse Fitness, Paul Gibbon of Wake Smith and Shane Beard of Firehouse Fitness Firehouse Fitness at the new base at Meaowbrook Park in Sheffield