Sydney’s iconic city gym gets a $1.5 million makeover

Sydney’s iconic City Gym in Darlinghurst is open for business after a $1.5 million refurbishment.

The gym, which opened in 1978 (the same year Sydney’s gay and lesbian Mardi Gras began), was originally called Crown Street Fitness Center and has been catering to Sydney’s LGBTQI fitness and bodybuilding community for over 40 years.

Current owners and former City Gym regulars Billy Kokkinis and Andy Mamasioulas took over management more than two years ago when the historic establishment was close to bankruptcy.

When Kokkinis first walked through the doors of City Gym in 1986 as a 15-year-old high school student with work experience, City Gym’s original founder, Billy Moore, showed him the ropes of running a successful business.

Moore is dedicated to creating a fitness space based on “equality, protection, support, compassion and respect for all”—an ideology that has made the gym a strange staple for “shredding.”

Following the sad passing of the original owner and the looming threat of closure, Billy “Junior” took over running the place.

Now, after signing a new 10-year lease, Kokkinis said in a press release that he hopes the gym’s glory days can be brought back.

“We have been an integral part of Sydney’s fitness scene since 1978 and want to bring City Gym back to where it belongs,” he said.

“Not only do we offer the best strength training equipment on the market, we also offer functional training, group fitness, Pilates and yoga. [which] offers the best instructors, the best equipment, all in one.”

The major refurbishment of the gym includes upgrading existing equipment and adding new facilities, updating Darlinghurst’s main fitness centre. It also includes a new café offering fresh produce and City Gym’s famous protein shakes, a professional boxing and training room, and a newly refurbished mind and body fitness space.

The surge in self-care in Sydney has also extended to the newly refurbished gym, which recently added a recovery/rehabilitation room and a new beauty salon for body treatments.

Other updates include an additional focus on services that support and promote the local LGBTIQ community.

These include plans for significant collaboration with local LGBT businesses and community groups in the area, bringing Mardi Gras to City Gym in 2020 and sponsoring important LGBTQI charities.

“It represents all the colorful history of our gym and all the characters and stories of King’s Cross that play out here,” Kokkinis said as he continued to train alongside long-time club members.

“There are a million stories out there and we want to continue to write new chapters in our long story.

“We’ve got the old atmosphere back, we’ve got that big family feeling back. For me, our community comes first.”