METAL IN KAMLOOPS

Joe Doyle sees his business growing into something of a community centre for North Kamloops.

Doyle and his business partner, Angus Glasgow, purchased Heavy Metal Gym in 2017 and have been putting in time since working to bulk it up — and do the same for the surrounding area.

“The gym is doing really well,” Doyle said.

“It’s definitely transforming. It will never be a big-box fitness centre, it’s a niche gym, but at the end of the day it’s really growing.”

Heavy Metal Gym is one aspect of Doyle and Glasgow’s overall plan to transform the North Shore. They are also developers who flip and build homes in the area.

And the two are not without their own connection to the gym world. Doyle is a former boxer and Glasgow is a Navy Veteran who has done everything from parkour to Tai Chi.

Doyle said purchasing the gym was a no-brainer when it came up for sale following the high-profile death of its former owner, slain gangster Konaam Shirzad.

“What I thought about is, we buy these decrepit houses in town and flip them and make them suitable for families,” Doyle said. “Why can’t I do that with a business?”

Doyle said he and Glasgow enjoy putting in work to help better the North Shore community.

“The gym, the whole thing, every dollar we make we put it right back in,” he said. “We haven’t profited a dollar from the gym, and that was the plan.”

You can find out more about Heavy Metal Gym online at their website or on Facebook.