{"id":445708,"date":"2026-05-26T08:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/445708\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T08:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:26:12","slug":"les-mills-auckland-city-long-awaited-new-pool-and-mega-sauna-unveiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/445708\/","title":{"rendered":"Les Mills Auckland City: Long-awaited new pool and mega sauna unveiled"},"content":{"rendered":"

He regards it as part of his legacy to build it.<\/p>\n

\"PhillipPhillip Mills says it’s his legacy to build the new inner-city Auckland pool. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n

No swimming pool resource consent has yet been sought but he forecasts building to start in 2027 or 2028.<\/p>\n

Preparatory works have been underway for a number of months next door in a $3 million related job.<\/p>\n

\"LesLes Mills Auckland City plans a big expansion with a pool on the site to the right. Photo \/ Anna Heath.<\/p>\n

The 9000 members of New Zealand\u2019s biggest private gym will get that pool, separate saunas for men and women and a cold plunge pool.<\/p>\n

Mills, with Les Mills Property CEO Stephanie Campbell, jointly announced the upgrades to Les Mills Auckland City, 186 Victoria St West, and a neighbouring site, which the business has owned for about a decade.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe empty site at 190 Victoria St West is here the new pool will be built. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n

The 25m pool is to be built as the top of a new building beside the existing black heritage gym between Victoria St and Wellesley St in the city\u2019s western precinct, Mills and Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Cook Brothers Construction is doing the upgrades of the changing rooms, toilets and showers within the old black building.<\/p>\n

That work has been underway for some months in preparation for the wider pool project.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe multi-level Les Mills Auckland City carpark on Wellesley St beside the company’s main city gym fronting Victoria St West. Photo \/ Google Streetview<\/p>\n

Existing upgrades are taking place in the old changing areas and boiler room.<\/p>\n

Space is being repurposed for what Mills said would be New Zealand\u2019s biggest sauna: a women\u2019s room for 28 users and a separate 24-man sauna. <\/p>\n

The pool is to be built beside those facilities on a vacant lot that will feature an outdoor landscaped courtyard area and other pools, for which it is yet to be decided whether they will be hot or cold.<\/p>\n

\"PlansPlans for the new pool at Les Mills Auckland City between Victoria St West and Wellesley St. Photo \/ Les Mills<\/p>\n

A large co-shared cold plunge will be beside the main six-lane pool.<\/p>\n

Les Mills Property owns the vacant 190 Victoria St West, which runs through to Wellesley St. <\/p>\n

Auckland Council values the 1490sq m site at $9m, whereas the main gym building next door at 186 Victoria St West is valued at $54m. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe new Les Mills Auckland City pool is set to have six lanes. Photo \/ Les Mills<\/p>\n

The main gym site is more than half a hectare at 5808sq m, with a half-hectare floor area on the land.<\/p>\n

Mills said 190 Victoria St West was initially used as the equipment laydown yard for Leighs Construction to build the new carparking building.<\/p>\n

The property at 190 Victoria St West is now being used as the site office for delivery of equipment and to gain access to the back of the heritage building to build the sauna and renovate the bathrooms.<\/p>\n

\"StephanieStephanie Campbell and Phillip Mills at the site for the new pool at Les Mills Auckland City. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n

Campbell said the new cold plunge was being built inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still to resolve the make-up of smaller pools outside, cold plunge and\/or hot pool,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Taranaki St gym of Les Mills in Wellington would get two new saunas and two smaller cold plunge pools.<\/p>\n

Mills said many of the 12 Les Mills gyms nationally had been upgraded.<\/p>\n

\"UpgradeUpgrade work is now happening inside the old black heritage building. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a major renovation for us,\u201d Mills said of the Victoria St West works.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of a renovation since Covid throughout the country. We\u2019re renovating all the gyms, modernising them, building back better, building them for the new generation for Gen Z and the upcoming Gen A.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LesLes Mills, who founded the gym chain. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray<\/p>\n

Mills, aged 71, has a son Les jnr and talked fondly of his father, Les Mills snr: \u201cHe\u2019s ninety-one-and-a-half. He\u2019s good, sharp as a tack, argues about what I should be doing with the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell said on average, people attended Les Mills gyms twice a week. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have fewer members but people are attending more,\u201d she said of Les Mills Auckland City, which had 10,000 members pre-Covid.<\/p>\n

\"AA plunge pool being built within part of the existing Les Mills Auckland City building. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n

About 100,000 people visit the 12 Les Mills nationally weekly, Campbell said. <\/p>\n

The pool, sauna and plunge pools were aimed at people wanting rest days from gym work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do fitness so well, but now it\u2019s about recovery, backing rest days and looking after your whole wellbeing. This is essentially our recovery products, for people to come to on a rest day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anne Gibson<\/a> has been the Herald\u2019s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He regards it as part of his legacy to build it. Phillip Mills says it’s his legacy to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,696,51,1558,3937,2199,49063,3938,14744,1019,302,35019,178,23949,35020,3025,117,111,43,139,69,20921,2171,5198,10903,117600,7811,15142,1530,80],"class_list":["post-445708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-announced","tag-auckland","tag-been","tag-chief","tag-city","tag-companys","tag-executive","tag-gym","tag-international","tag-its","tag-les","tag-longawaited","tag-mega","tag-mills","tag-most","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-phillip","tag-plans","tag-pool","tag-popular","tag-sauna","tag-since","tag-unveiled","tag-years","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}