The first phase of a £5million (US$6.1m, €5.7m) redevelopment of Salt Ayre Leisure Centre has been completed, as part of a joint project between facility specialist Alliance Leisure and Lancaster City Council.

The completed work includes a Les Mills Immersive Studio, a new 80-station fitness suite, a barista-style café, an adventure play area and XHeight climbing wall.

The leisure centre is the first owner-operated local authority facility in the country to offer a full Les Mills Immersive Studio.

The gym, which has been kitted out with Precor equipment, showcases cardiovascular pieces including the Experience Series EFX 800 with Converging CrossRamp and P82 consoles, Discovery Series Power and Half Racks, strength machines and a free standing Queenax functional training unit.

Specialist leisure developer Createability carried out construction works on the 71,096sq ft (6,605sq m) centre, alongside architects Bignell, Shacklady, Ewing.

Alliance Leisure’s development lead, James Foley, said: “The whole ethos for the project has been to create a vibrant environment that stimulates participation by reinvigorating the traditional approach to the health, fitness and wellbeing offer with new technology and solutions.”

Simon Kirby, sports and leisure manager at Lancaster City Council, said: “Our aim has been to create an inspirational destination so members of our community and from across the region can come and enjoy a wide range of new and innovative physical activities. This is exactly what Alliance Leisure, Createability and the team of specialist contractors have achieved. We are already experiencing a significant increase in usage with over 300 new fitness members joining since opening a few weeks ago. We anticipate this will rise even further when the project completes in the summer.”

As part of a 10-year development partnership between Alliance and the city council, the facility specialist will also provide support across marketing, staff training and sales.

Phase two of the project includes installation of Europe’s first Flight Tower, a multi-level outdoor tower and adventure installation. The ‘Gravity’ concept will allow people to abseil, zipline or free-fall from its 60ft platform.

The final phase of the development will see the design and build of a health and wellbeing hub, housed in a new 5,813sq ft (540sq m) extension.