Live Well Fitness opens second location

Kelly Daukontas adjusts some equipment at her new location in Little Falls.

By Dave Warner

Kelly Daukontas has opened up a second Live Well Fitness location, this time in Little Falls at 299 Loomis Street. Her other location is at 661 County Road 120. That gives it a St Johnsville address, but it’s really only minutes from Dolgeville.

She said that the previous owners of the facility in Little Falls reached out to her to find out if they were interested in running and managing another gym. “Initially, we said no way because it’s a lot of work. But, he was really great at helping us make a smooth transition between his current members and us getting started.”

“With that being said, we knew this was a good opportunity, being closer to the City. Our other place is in the middle of nowhere essentially, but we have a great gym there, and it’s a very busy business.”

Daukontas thought that if she took the same business model that had been working in Dolgville and brought it to Little Falls, which has a bigger population, “We’d be able to replicate the same success.”

The Little Falls facility has 10,000 square feet of air-conditioned space, compared to 3,600 square feet in the air-conditioned Dolgeville facility. “We have a lot more space to grow and expand and bring more health and wellness opportunities to the City.”

The facility is open 24/7 for members because of a key fob system, so it’s convenient for whenever people want to work out. “We’ve added a lot of new equipment and sold some old stuff and purchased some things we thought were necessary.”

Free weights, more squat racks and benches, as well as a leg press. “We still have plans to continue to weed out some of the old equipment and purchase new things,” she stated.

There are many weight machines, as well as some new classes being offered that aren’t in the other space. Spin, Yoga on Sunday, and a Bar Fusion class are just some of the differences.

“We plan to add more group fitness stuff slowly, but to be honest, I need more help and instructors. I can’t do it all,” she said.

Daukontas is currently doing some private group personal training in the building. “That’s been really fun, and I’ve met a lot of new people.”

When she thinks about the future, Daukontas considers some of the things that they have at the other location. “We have a sauna at the other location—that would be cool to have here eventually. And perhaps even a recovery room that has a cold plunge as well because that’s really popular.”

She said they’re in discussions to set up a massage therapist and are renting space in the downstairs area for mental health therapy. “That’s been a great addition to this building.”

“It would be awesome to partner with some sort of physical therapist that would go hand in hand with the gym and all the different athletes that train here,” she stated.

Live Well Fitness has a contract with the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs, and she said it has been really cool seeing the baseball players work out in the facility. “We’ve been able to facilitate their athletic training.”

Other than that, she said they really haven’t had much time to flush out all of the ideas. “This happened so quickly for us. In February, we weren’t even thinking about opening another business; by April 1st, here we were.”

The business model is very similar to the other location, but now that they’re up, moving, and growing, they can think of new ways to use the extra space.

Leading up to April 1st, they questioned their sanity in opening another location. “It was a lot of work. There was no rubber flooring here. We added an awesome turf floor, which is especially nice for the high school kids who utilize that a lot.”

They painted the facility, added a security system and a new key fob system, and then transferred the old computer system to a new one. “It was a lot of work. Luckily, my husband, who is a school teacher, was off for a whole week and was such an immense help just getting all those little details straightened out.”

“Now that we’re settled, I’m super happy to be in Little Falls. I think this is a great community. We’ve serviced a lot of Little Falls people at our other facility, and we have a lot of friends and family here, and we come to the City a lot. Now, I’m happy to have a business here,” she said.

Daukontas said that some of the people from Little Falls who were going to Dolgeville love the convenience of having it here and have moved their membership to the City. She said that has actually helped the Dolgeville center because they had reached capacity.

“The ten to fifteen members who transferred to Little Falls kind of helped with that. Initially, we had been talking about building an addition to that location, but then, this happened.”

“I think it’s going to work out being here. It’s a bigger community than what we have there,” she said.

If you’d like more information, they are on Facebook and they’re also on other social media platforms – just search for Live Well Fitness Health and Wellness Center.

“We post class schedules, membership information, and pricing,” she stated.