FORT SCOTT — I Am Rehab & Fitness will close its doors at the former Mercy Hospital building Friday and reopen Monday, Sept. 21, at 1502 Scott Ave., the former home of Happy Kids Daycare & Preschool, co-owner Hugo Dahlstrom said in an interview with the Bourbon County Monitor.
Movers are scheduled for Friday, Sept. 18, and the therapy clinic and gym will be closed Friday through Sunday, according to an email Dahlstrom and co-owner Denny Gillard sent to members Monday morning.
Dahlstrom said the move was originally scheduled for Sept. 11 but was pushed back a week to give the crew finishing the new space more time to prepare it. The extra week also allowed the partners to clear out storage units and get a head start on moving the clinic’s largest piece of equipment.
“The hydroworks machine is going with us,” Dahlstrom said. The aquatic therapy unit was moved to the new building earlier this month and is awaiting final installation.
A six-man moving crew will handle the rest.
“It’s going to be a chore,” Dahlstrom said. “I hope they’re ready for it.”
Cost drove the decision. I Am Rehab first opened Jan. 1, 2019, directly after Mercy Health for Life closed in the same space, and Dahlstrom said the clinic has leased from a succession of landlords ever since — first through a sublease from Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, followed by Mercy, Bourbon County, Legacy Healthcare Foundation and, most recently, KRI.
The first two years came at a favorable rate, he said. Starting the third year, rent went to $12 a square foot for a little more than 8,200 square feet, and the clinic has operated month to month without a lease since. When KRI approached the partners about signing a long-term contract at a higher rate, Dahlstrom said, the answer was easy.
“I’m already unhappy with what we’re paying now per month, so increasing that’s really not going to work,” he said.
Dahlstrom said he had already reached out to Crystal Mason last fall about finding another location in town. Mason connected him with Jared Leek, who is building out the Scott Avenue space.
“One thing led to another and here we are,” Dahlstrom said.
The new building is about 5,300 square feet, so the gym will be smaller. Six treadmills and four ellipticals are making the trip; five treadmills and two ellipticals that came with the hospital space will stay behind.
“We’ve never used anywhere near 11 treadmills at one time,” Dahlstrom said.
The clinic opened with three partners. David Shank left at the end of 2020 after getting married and moving to Nashville, Tennessee, leaving Dahlstrom and Gillard to run the practice.
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