Mayor Sarno joins with Emily Banerjee at Buildemup Fitness to Tour the Fitness Center’s Upgrades

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno joined with local business owner Emily Banerjee to tour her fitness center and recovery spa at BuildEmUp Fitness located in downtown Springfield on the 9th floor of One Financial Plaza at 1350 Main Street on Monday. Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Judi Crowell also joined for the tour.

BuildEmUp Fitness, a woman-owned and operated gym, was awarded $40,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) new business funding as part of the city’s 13th round of ARPA awards announced last year. Emily Banerjee is a proud Springfield native and resident who navigated the challenges of COVID-19 and launched her own small business and continues to see it grow. BuildEmUp Fitness employs 6 people and the fitness center space now accommodates 3 tenants who offer recovery services.

One of the most exciting improvements made possible by the ARPA small business funding awarded to BuildEmUp Fitness is the addition of many of the recovery services now available including a cold plunge bath (the only commercially available cold plunge within 100 miles), an infrared sauna, Normatec air compression therapy, and infrared laser therapy. Now clients can work out and recover in one easily accessible place.

Mayor Sarno states, “CDO Tim Sheehan and I are proud to continue to highlight the diverse reach our local ARPA funding has provided in our community. Emily Banerjee and her team at BuildEmUp Fitness offer transformative services for their clients to help achieve their health and fitness outcomes and now have been able to transform the fitness center space with improvements funded by our ARPA new business program. The space, which is located right here downtown at One Financial Plaza on the 9th floor, is absolutely beautiful. The nice city-view I had been told about did not disappoint – thank you Emily for having us by today and for your continued belief support and investment in our Springfield and our community.”

Mayor Sarno added, “Shout out to trainer Jordan Daniels who was hard at work training a client during the tour today and who also serves as girls Lacrosse coach at our Central High School.”

Emily Banerjee stated, “My Springfield community has always been important to me and one of my goals in launching BuildEmUp Fitness was to create healthy opportunities right here in my hometown. I am deeply grateful to Mayor Sarno and the City of Springfield for supporting BuildEmUp with an ARPA award. We were able to completely transform the space on the 9th floor of 1350 Main Street thanks to this much needed assistance. I am so proud of what we have been able to accomplish in under a year.”

“It’s so important to me to provide true value to my clients. I never want to operate on a “ghost member” model where we simply collect your membership dues and never see you. I am invested in helping clients reach their goals and want to get to know you and see you here often, whether for a tough work out or to relax and recover. A lot of what I do is educate, encourage safety, and help create longevity in your fitness habits.”

Emily continued, “I am proud to have expanded and hired additional trainers since I first opened. Everyone at BuildEmUp strives to be welcoming, warm, and inclusive to any and all clients no matter where they are in their fitness journey. The ultimate goal around here is strength – strengthening our bodies, minds, and relationship with ourselves to better serve us, our families, our communities. ‘Strong not Skinny’ is the BuildEmUp motto because how you can feel and what you can do means more than what size you can squeeze into.”