When David Harvey recently moved back to Kingston from Edmonds with his wife, Amy, they knew they wanted to bring a fitness center to the area.

But they didn’t know it would end up being at the stomping grounds of his first job when he was 16.

The Harvey’s opened The Yard Fitness Club earlier this month at the former location of Kingston Lumber — where David held his first job.

“Amy and I are both kind of fitness enthusiasts,” Harvey said. “At a glance, I saw that the old Kingston Lumber building was vacant, and there was a banner there looking for tenants. I said, ‘I think we might have to take a look at this opportunity.’ It was unique, to say the least.”

With few fitness clubs in North Kitsap, the Harveys knew the area could benefit from a place that had lots of space to offer for a variety of activities.

Harvey said: “We heard a lot of people were actually driving to Silverdale to workout. To me, that just seemed crazy. We went down the path of getting an architect and taking a look at the building. Once we started really digging into the facility and looking at it even the architect said, ‘This is screaming a gym, a health club.’ The layout is all open with high ceilings. A year plus later here we are.”

The Yard Fitness Club provides a full-service facility for members and anyone who considers themself a fitness enthusiast, Harvey said. Some of the activities and workouts include MUV team training, various spin classes, a stretching studio, personal training along with Matrix cardio and strength equipment. The facility also has full locker rooms and showers.

“Our MUV studio is our high-intensity team training area,” Harvey said. “It can be used for personal trainers or rehab-type things, but also provides an area to where it’s a modified group training space. You have a personal trainer working with a group of like eight folks and taking them through a program that aligns with their needs but also high-intensity team training.

“We tried to do it state of the art as far as cardio. I think that’s the goal of most fitness centers or gyms. We are going to focus on stretching-type classes as well…to kind of get more people focused on stretching to help preventative maintenance with injuries.”

The fitness club opened at a time when COVID-19 rates are skyrocketing across Kitsap County. Harvey said everyone is following the mask mandate, and they give out rags and cleaning products to each person working out to ensure everything is wiped down.

“Our members have been very respectful of that,” he said. “It’s been better than expected with everything going on.”

The Yard Fitness Club offers a variety of memberships, including for families, couples and students. They are approaching 300 members, and everything is month to month so no one will be locked into a contract. He mentioned they can cancel anytime and also freeze their membership. Visit theyardfitclub.com for details.

With all the space, Harvey said they can do other community events that promote health and fitness.

“We’re really trying to tie into the community,” he said. “We have a large kind of courtyard space; make it more of a gathering spot. We’re getting people who are coming from Suquamish, Hansville and other areas. People can come in and not just get a good workout but hopefully interact with the community and be part of being active.”

The club has just a few employees. Amy Harvey is the manager, while Drew Clark is the fitness director. Clark is a Kingston High School graduate of 2015 who played college basketball at the University of Puget Sound. They also have a few high school seniors who are splitting hours.

The Harvey’s are passionate about their new business.

“As much as this is something we see as a business opportunity, this is something that we both truly love. It’s kind of fun to be back here working where I was when I was 16. I think we’re on track to develop a good strong relationship with the community and be here for a long time,” Harvey said.

The Yard Fitness Club sign in Kingston.