A Liberty Lake-based athletic club and a Spokane-based physical therapy clinic are teaming up on a facility currently under construction in Spokane Valley.

Liberty Lake Athletic Club owner Grant Bafus says he’s partnered with Brian Cronin, Jeff Hart, and Mike Nilson, who own U-District Physical Therapy & Institute of Sports Performance, to create a joint facility at 504. N. Barker Road, to be called Liberty Lake Athletic West.

“We’ve been working with U-District Physical Therapy for a while on a mutual location we could partner on,” Bafus says. “I like having a physical therapy clinic in or attached to an athletic club. It’s a good marriage of the two businesses.”

Liberty Lake Athletic Club will occupy 6,000 square feet of the 10,000-square-foot building, while U-District Physical Therapy will operate in the balance of the space.

Construction on the facility began in June. Liberty Lake-based Reacon Construction LLC is the contractor on the project. Russell C. Page Architects PS, of Spokane, designed the structure. 

Building permit information for Liberty Lake Athletic West shows a project value of $900,000. Bafus notes, however, that construction costs have risen as supply-chain issues impact materials availability.

He hopes to have the building completed and the business open by Jan. 1, he says. Liberty Lake Athletic West will be smaller and offer fewer amenities than the flagship Liberty Lake Athletic Club, he says. 

Up to six people will work in the athletic club portion of Liberty Lake Athletic West, Bafus says. That will include head trainer Amy Livingston, who will have a dedicated personal training space. Bafus says Livingston will specialize in small-group training and will offer services throughout the week.

“Right now, she operates out of our basketball court” at the original Liberty Lake Athletic Club location, Bafus says. “It’s not ideal, so we thought it’d be cool for her to have her own space.”

U-District Physical Therapy couldn’t be reached for comment.

Bafus says he’s been eyeing a Barker Road location for a while.

“There’s so much growth happening on north and south Barker that we wanted to capture some of that market,” he says.

Liberty Lake Athletic Club is located at 23410 E. Mission, in Liberty Lake. 

U-District Physical Therapy is based in Spokane, at 730 N. Hamilton, near Gonzaga University. The company also has Spokane locations in the Spokane Club, at 1002 W. Riverside, and in Kendall Yards, at 546 N. Jefferson Lane; a Spokane Valley location at 5900 E. Fourth; and a Liberty Lake location at 1334 N. Whitman Lane.