Jon Cheung worked with elite level athletes out of the Saville Centre’s High Performance Training and Research Centre. The converted basketball gym was a unique workout facility for varsity and professional athletes in Edmonton. It wasn’t open to the public, and that is what eventually led Jon to open up Evolve – a 14,000 square foot complex in south Edmonton. “We had lots of people and teams asking to train at the centre but they couldn’t,” says Jon. “I wanted to make a high-performance training centre available to the public. It’s never been done in Edmonton before.”
Jon’s initial idea was to open just as a gym but, when he saw the building he wanted, his business model suddenly changed. “As we looked for a place, we came across this space that was a metal shop in the back and an accounting firm in front,” says Jon. “So, there were about 15 offices attached to this bay. That’s when an idea came to my head.”
