Therapy Center / Center for Personal Fitness

A New Home

In 2018, Essentia Health acquired a vacant anchor store at Miller Hill Mall, intending to convert it to an Ambulatory Care Center. The first department to move to this new location was their therapy and fitness center.

The large column spacing provided great flexibility for laying out large spaces for fitness and therapy gyms and pool. However, since the original building was not designed with healthcare in mind, water and sanitary capacity was increased, the 2nd story structure was reinforced, a dimising wall was built to separate it from the rest of the mall, and exterior windows were added to bring in daylight and improve visibility.

The completed project consists of a physical therapy treatment center with dedicated Spinex and physical therapy gyms, along with individual treatment spaces, located adjacent to a public fitness center containing a larger fitness gym, aerobics center, and hydrotherapy pool with locker rooms. This adjacency permits the use of the fitness center amenities, especially the therapy pool and locker rooms, to be easily accessed by the therapy department. This sharing of functions provides a cost effective solution to meet the needs of both the therapy department and the fitness center.