Brisbane's TotalFusion group wins Supreme Court battle to open new gym

After a legal battle lasting almost two years, Brisbane-based gym group TotalFusion is now set to open its new Platinum club, described as “Queensland’s biggest gym facility”, in the suburb of Morningside on 1st February.

The Queensland Supreme Court ended the legal battle on Friday 2nd December, closing appeals by Australian Country Choice (ACC), a cattle and abattoir business, which had objected to site owner BMI Group’s lease of the 5577 metre² gym premises on the Rivermakers site.

TotalFusion Platinum Morningside can now open in the New Year, subject to conditions that it has  cease operating within two years and that member numbers have to be limited to 300 at any one time.

Founded by Leon McNiece, best known as the founder of Goodlife Health Clubs and for building Snap Fitness in Australia and New Zealand in the years up to 2018, the new Morningside club will be the group’s fourth facility and second Platinum club.

Following the ruling, a Facebook post from TotalFusion Australia advised "we won our court case, and TotalFusion Morningside is OPENING!!

“We cannot express our deepest gratitude to our community for the remarkable show of love, excitement, and support we have received throughout this process; we are truly blessed to be opening our doors to such an incredible community.

“This innovative club is the first fitness facility of it’s kind in Queensland, and wait (un)til you see what’s inside.”

The gym has now begun advertising for about 100 staff, including managers, trainers, PT staff, receptionists, cleaners and more.

ACC’s appeal raised questions about whether the gym could try to operate beyond a two-year limit imposed by Judge Nicole Kefford and exceed a 300-patron limit.

ACC also raised concerns it would be exposed to complaints from gym patrons about odour and noise from the meatworks.

However, as reported by Brisbane’s The Courier-Mail, McNiece argued from the beginning that his patrons would not be able to hear or smell the meatworks inside the gym and could not even see it from their carpark.

McNiece advised “we are absolutely overjoyed with the positive news that we have successfully won our court case against ACC to permit the opening of our state-of-the-art health and wellness facility, TotalFusion Morningside.

“It has been a challenging two years for us and, as unfortunate as the whole experience has been, we have been blown away by the remarkable show of support, excitement and positivity we have received from the local community from the very start.

“This reaffirms to us just how much this community wants and needs a premium health and wellness facility in Morningside.”

The gym will include wellness as well as fitness facilities including saunas, hot and cold pools, on-site nutritionists, cryotherapy (cold temperature therapy), compression booths (essentially massage booths) and recovery tools.