Planet Fitness to take over former McHenry Best Buy building

Planet Fitness has announced plans for a McHenry location.

The fitness center operates more than 1,500 locations nationwide, including one in Crystal Lake, its only McHenry County location. The McHenry center will occupy about 18,000 square feet in the 30,364-square-foot former Best Buy, located in the Shops at Fox River off Richmond Road.

“This is a very good fit for that building,” McHenry’s economic development director Doug Martin said. “It makes sense. It’s someone we thought would work, and Planet Fitness is of the same mindset. It’s an open building. It’s a well-run and maintained shopping center.”

The owners plan to do an interior build-out and must get signage approved, but the center could be open within several months, Martin said.

The building is located along with more than 20 other stores in the Shops at Fox River complex that straddles McHenry and Johnsburg. Best Buy closed the McHenry location in October 2017.

The 340,849-square-foot complex was built in 2007 and includes Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bed Bath and Beyond, Old Navy, Ulta Beauty and T.J. Maxx.

A New York-based company acquired the Shops at Fox River earlier this year.

Times Equities Inc. bought the retail center at Route 31 and Running Brook Farm Boulevard for $32 million in May.

Planet Fitness offers $10 and $20 a month memberships, fitness classes and a variety of cardio and weight training equipment.