Grand opening for the brand-new UFC Gym BJ Penn in Hilo is set for 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.
“I think this is our family goal, to provide one of the best fitness centers in the state of Hawaii. And I believe we have it here,” Hilo businesswoman Lorraine Shin told the Tribune-Herald on Tuesday.
Shin is the mother of Penn — a world jiu-jitsu champion and mixed martial arts legend who won Ultimate Fighting Championship belts in both the welterweight and lightweight divisions.
A tour through the 20,000-foot gym revealed everything a fitness or MMA gym could want for equipment, as well as creature comforts such as large-screen TVs in every room — including the restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities — carpeting and aesthetics such as a large black-and-white mural of Penn presiding over the workout gyms, and a collage of well over 200 UFC fight card posters, including those from Penn’s UFC Hall of Fame career.
“Every time I look at a fight poster, it’s like a flashback: ‘I remember that fight,’” said J.D. Penn, BJ Penn’s older brother and manager, who largely oversaw the transformation of the former Hilo Lanes bowling alley at 777 Kinoole St.
There’s a large number of large screens over the workout equipment, which includes treadmills, ellipticals, weight machines, stationary cycles and even an endless ladder — which has a conveyor belt allowing one to climb as long as one wishes without worry about height or a fall.
In addition, there are rooms for aerobics, rows of suspended heavy bags for striking with fists, feet, elbows and knees, and a jiu-jitsu room with a wall-to-wall mat.
And the facility includes a pièce de résistance for MMA fighters and fans — a regulation 24-foot UFC octagon.
“I’m just waiting to see people’s faces when they walk in and see something like this in Hilo,” J.D. Penn said. “I’ll be excited to see Saturday come and see the kids and their parents.”
Perhaps the most impressive high-tech innovation is a cryotherapy chamber, in which temperatures reach a bone-chilling minus-175 degrees Fahrenheit. Its purpose is to therapeutically super-cool a stressed and strained post-workout body.
Those using the chamber are inside for three minutes, maximum.
“It’s way better than an ice bath for 15 minutes. That’s more brutal to me,” J.D. Penn noted.
Even the parking lot is freshly paved and ready for what will almost certainly be a parade of cars entering on Saturday.
The 3.7-acre property was acquired in 2018 for about $2.7 million by M.S. Petroleum Corp., which is owned by Shin. Renovations were about $3 million, with another $1.3 million in equipment, for a grand total of about $7 million.
“Every single piece we had to buy,” said J.D. Penn, talking about the gym’s equipment. “So, we pretty much built the entire car, getting it ready — and we’re going to give it to the UFC to run.
They’re going to manage everything; they’re going to control everything.
They’re going to do all that, like a franchise.”
In return, the UFC pays a hefty licensing fee to use BJ Penn’s name and likeness on and in the gym, as it does for the other four UFC gyms on Oahu.
Shin said that the 1,700 members of Penn Training and Fitness at 639 Kinoole St. will be moving to the posh new facility. She added that the new gym can accommodate between 4,000 and 4,500 members.
Those in attendance at this Saturday’s grand opening can watch the UFC 288 pay-per-view card featuring the UFC bantamweight championship bout between the champion, 33-year-old Aljamain Sterling, and Henry Cejudo, a 36-year-old former flyweight and bantamweight champion, as well as a former Olympic wrestling champion. Cejudo came out of retirement to take this fight.
“If you’re a member, all of the UFC events are free. I was blown away when they announced that. That’s a phenomenal perk — two big pay-per-views a month. Every single room, every single TV will have it,” J.D. Penn said.
In addition to the gym, the 777 Kinoole Center complex eventually will also house numerous other businesses. They include: Lanikai Brewing Co., Papa John’s Pizza, Employment Experts, Milestone Investments, Aloha Tropicals — which J.D. Penn described as “a grab-and-go” eatery — and Wasted, which uses red-light therapy for body contouring.
Shin has a family fun center in mind for the old gym property in the former Hilo Macaroni Co. building, and is looking to lease space in the office building at 145 Keawe St., where Employment Experts currently is situated.
Both Shin and J.D. Penn said the opening represents the culmination of a vision by the family’s late patriarch, Jaydee Penn Sr., a former Navy judo champion known affectionately as “Pops.”
“We’re so excited about the whole thing,” J.D. Penn said. “It is a lot of money, of course, but that’s not why we did it. We didn’t go, ‘Let’s sink in $7 million to see how much money we can make.’
It’s more like what Pops used to say when he was still alive and mom was building this: ‘It’s for the future. For the kids, to see them grow.’
“It’s a community thing.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
