By contrast, we’ve created boulevards on the gym floor where two, three, even four people can pass each other comfortably. It goes against everything you usually try and do when you design a gym, fitting in as much equipment as possible. “‘Space is Luxury’ is one such principle. Fuelled by this interest, our design philosophy includes a number of interesting principles. I’m fascinated by how the aesthetic world – the abstract use of composition, tone, depth of meaning – translates into everyday life, even without us always knowing it. “I’m into art and design and have been a photography collector all my adult life. It’s about lifestyle – creating spaces that make you feel uplifted and where you want to hang out. This is how we differentiate ourselves from others, and it comes from my background in high-end experiences at hotels and resorts. “What really separates us is our focus on environments, experiences, feelings. “At least, those were the revenues pre-COVID.” Our eight owned clubs are all very large: US$8m in revenue a year for our smallest club US$13m for our average club and over US$40m a year at Midtown Athletic Club Chicago – dad’s original tennis club.

“Management contracts are a comparatively small part of our cashflow though. We also manage 25 clubs for other owners – hospitals, corporations and so on – which is an area of the business dad started and I’ve grown. “We now own eight Midtown Athletic Clubs outright, including ownership of the property itself: four in Chicago and four up and down the eastern seaboard, including one in Canada. “Dad wasn’t really interested in fitness though, so by 1990 he turned to me and said: ‘You do it!’ We renovated, repositioned and slowly, over a period of about 15 years, bought out all our partners to consolidate ownership. We soon realised this was a more profitable model. We started adding elements of fitness, turning Midtown into a multi-recreational business, and learned how to market it. The business certainly wasn’t failing, but tennis wasn’t performing as I thought it could. “I joined Midtown in 1987 and started looking at the model. My dad’s fire was stoked when my career brought me back to Chicago as director of development for Hyatt Hotels. “In my father’s mind, I think it was an inevitability that his kids would join the family business,” he says, “but I went down the path of hospitality, studying at Cornell hotel school. The clubs were tennis facilities and my dad would get involved in the tennis programming, but the business model had a real estate focus and we always had partners in the clubs.

“He was also passionate about real estate, and what the business did was bring this together with tennis. We never had a vacation that didn’t revolve around a tennis tournament,” Schwartz laughs.

“Dad was a great tennis player: winner of nine national championships and seven state championships. Originally founded by his father and grandfather in 1970, and with his son Alex now making his presence felt as director of marketing, Midtown Athletic Clubs is – as CEO Steven Schwartz explains – a four-generation business. Member confidence is the single most important factor, and I say – without doing so lightly – that our cleanliness standards, protocols and marketing are the best I’ve seen in the industry

Steven d schwartz md thailand