Ed Perez Fitness

06/18/2026

I poured the concrete for my first gym in 1975.

Not a figure of speech. I literally bolted the racks to the floor, hired the staff, trained the members, handled the leases, and fixed the equipment when it broke.

Three gyms over three decades. Pumping Iron. Valencia Health Club. NuBest.

Most people who design fitness spaces today have never owned one. They've never watched a treadmill die at year three. Never seen a layout cause a traffic jam at 6pm. Never had a member quit because the gym didn't work.

I have. Hundreds of times.

That's not a resume line. It's the reason my designs hold up when the brochure-designers' don't.

30 years on the gym floor before I ever sold a piece of equipment.

06/17/2026

I put together a free guide for developers and property managers.

7 Costly Fitness Amenity Mistakes Developers Make Before They Build.

Inside:

The equipment trap that kills resident retention by year two.
Why most building gyms become storage closets.
The single layout mistake that destroys daily use.

Every mistake comes with the fix. Built from 30+ years and 500+ projects across the tri-state.

Read it in 15 minutes. Save your build from a six-figure redo.

Comment "GUIDE" or DM me and I'll send it over. Free. No call required.

06/16/2026

Unpopular opinion in my industry:

The equipment is not the decision.

Every salesperson wants to talk about brands. Treadmill specs. Weight stacks. Touchscreens.

None of that matters if the space is designed wrong.

I've seen $80,000 worth of premium equipment sit unused because the layout didn't work and nobody planned for how residents would actually move through the room.

I've also seen modest budgets turn into amenities people brag about, because the design came first and the equipment came second.

The equipment is the result of the decision. The decision is the design.

Get that order wrong and no brand name saves you.

06/12/2026

This is a fitness amenity I designed for a multifamily build in Queens.

Before a single piece of equipment gets ordered, the client sees this. A full 3D render of the space with every machine placed exactly where it'll live.

Why this matters:

You catch the problems before they cost money. The cable machine that blocks a door. The cardio crammed too close together. The layout that looks fine on a 2D floor plan and falls apart in real life.

Approving a flat drawing is the most expensive shortcut in this business.

Seeing it in 3D first is how you get it right the first time.

06/10/2026

Most fitness amenities in new residential buildings get specced wrong.

Not because the developer made a bad call.

Because nobody on the team had actually run a gym before.

Here's what happens:

The equipment gets picked off a brand sheet. The layout gets drawn for the brochure, not for 7pm peak hour. The treadmill rated for home use dies in 18 months under commercial traffic.

By year two, residents stop using the gym.

By renewal season, it shows up as a complaint.

I've watched this play out on hundreds of builds across 30 years.

The fix isn't a bigger budget. It's having someone who knows how people actually train in the room before the equipment gets ordered.

That's the whole job.

06/09/2026

06/09/2026

06/08/2026

06/08/2026

06/08/2026