Banking on a dream: Fitness center coming to old Sterling Bank site

Published 10:33 am Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Noelle first met Franz when she was looking for a personal trainer to help her get back into fitness-model shape after giving birth to her son Kragon.

Franz Hovarth, who was working for Wallowa Memorial Hospital at the time, was exactly what she needed — a graduate-degree physical therapist with a home gym so enviable that football players from high school teams all over the county came to work out in his garage in Joseph.

Over time, it became clear that Franz was more than the perfect personal trainer; he was the perfect mate.

The Hovarths now have been married for two years. They live in Enterprise and are making their dreams come true. And a big dream they had in common — creating a first-class fitness center in Wallowa County — is within about a month of being a reality.

“We’ve been seriously talking about it for three years,” said Noelle. “People kept telling us ‘you’ve got to make a gym,’ and you’ve got to do what your passion is. You don’t make a lot of money with a gym, but it’s what we love.”

The Vault Health and Fitness, the Hovarths’ new gym, is being developed in the old Sterling Bank building on SW First Street in Enterprise. An investment group purchased the property at auction earlier this year. The Hovarths are now leasing that property with a plan to buy it.

The Vault (named after the bank vault within the building) will be a 24-hour fitness facility with equipment for everything from cardio to heavy weights to crossfit workouts. Yoga and Zumba classes also will be offered. The vault itself is being transformed into a bouldering room for climbers.

A gated children’s play area with a television for kids’ exercise games is being constructed. No child care will be offered, so parents will have to supervise their own children. But kids will have a safe place to exercise just like Mommy and Daddy.

Two full bathrooms with stalls and a shower will be located on the top floor and another bathroom will be available downstairs. The bathrooms have mirrors suitable for putting on your make-up and styling your hair before work.

In time, personal trainers will be available and rehabilitation fitness programs can be developed with Franz.

The gym will carry exercise supplements, nutritional supplements, protein powders and bars, soaps from Wild Carrot of Enterprise, items from Ruby Peak Naturals of Enterprise, and artwork from potter Ted Juve of Enterprise.

“We want to partner with as many local businesses as possible,” Noelle said.

Businesses from as far away as Portland also are looking at The Vault as a staging area for other events in the county.

“I’m in conversations with gym chains who say that they’ve been looking at Wallowa County as a place to come for events for a long time,” Noelle said. “We’re already forming a group for Spartan Racing, Color Runs, Tuff Mudder mud runs. … We’ll also want to do a yoga camp — a few days to a week in nature.”

Many of the Hovarths’ plans are a few years down the road and include conversion of the huge parking lot behind the gym into an “American Ninja”-style outdoor space — a jungle gym for big kids, Franz says.

For now, you can get on a preliminary list for a membership. “People are begging to sign up,” said Noelle. “We should be able to take sign-ups by the end of November.”

The Vault will not be in business until then, possibly a few weeks into November, but a website will be up soon under the name The Vault Health and Fitness LLC and in the meantime you can email Noelle at riseandriseagain247@gmail.com.

A grand opening will be announced in the future.