24-hour nonstaffed fitness center to open up in former Rite-Aid this summer

The Rite-Aid pharmacy at 190 Wakefield St. will soon be home to a 24/7 gym (Courtesy photo)

A Vanguard Key Club fitness center similar to ones in Dover and Portsmouth is coming to Rochester.
The Rochester club to be located in the former Rite-Aid on Wakefield Street across from the Lilac Mall will open sometime this summer.
The facilities are nonstaffed and members enter the gym using a key card.
A club official went before the planning board earlier this week to explain how the club functions with no staff, but relies on enhanced security systems to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the key-card system.
For instance, if a member allows a nonmember into the club, monitors will detect a second, or even third individual, and the member would be notified, warned or charged an extra fee.
Planning board chair Mark Collopy asked about the potential for loitering outside the building, especially at night, but the gym's representative said the lights inside and outside in the parking lot would all be fully illuminated 24/7, and there is constant member traffic throughout the nighttime hours.
Collopy said the gym seemed a good fit and would keep an empty building from falling into disrepair.
Board member Rick Healey noted that in a way, the drug store going to a gym was kind of fitting, because they're both in the health business.
"The irony of the whole thing is it's surrounded by burger joints," he added, eliciting laughs from board members and the gallery..
Moments later the board voted unanimously to approve the change of use.