$10 million Wellness Center opens at Garden of the Gods 'Collection'

The exterior of the just-opened International Health and Wellness Center is shown at 3314 Mesa Road (facing a parking lot that's off the road). The facility's entrance is in the center foreground.
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$10 million Wellness Center opens at Garden of the Gods 'Collection'

The June 10 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new International Health and Wellness Center was accentuated by the release of butterflies from a box. Garden of the Gods Collection co-owners Brenda Smith (holding the box) and Judy Mackey (to her right) are joined in the activity by Collection general manager Laura Neumann (far left) and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers.

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When Judy Mackey and Brenda Smith bought the Garden of the Gods Club in 2013, a major initiative was to build a facility that would help people get healthy and stay that way.
       That vision took physical form in June with the grand opening in June of the $10 million International Health and Wellness Center (IHWC) at 3314 Mesa Road.
       Located next to the luxury resort's main building, the two-level, 30,000-square-foot facility, open to the public, “establishes a new model in healthcare delivery for leisure travelers, executives and groups, with a focus on integrated and proactive care,” a press release states.
       The basic intent was summed up during the grand opening by IHWC medical director/cardiologist Michael Barber during a grand-opening tour of the building. “People want to live longer,” he summarized. “They don't want it to feel longer.”
       The grand opening also underlined the recent renaming of the resort itself. The new moniker is the Garden of the Gods Collection.
       According to Smith, the word “Collection” reflects Mackey's and her philosophy about the resort and how it's evolved over the years. The Hill family built it after World War II - with guest

A "Bod Pod," used in helping assess a program for weight loss, is available for patient use in the International Health and Wellness Center.

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accommodations, dining options, gathering places and various indoor/outdoor sports and leisure opportunities - while developing the Mesa. At that time, “it was like a private club,” Smith said; but currently, with most of the vacant land previously sold to a development group and now the wellness center added, “it's more of a collection of properties,” she elaborated.
       Built over the past 17 months by local contractor GE Johnson, the Wellness Center features a “team of acclaimed, board-certified physicians,” a press release states. They are identified as a cardiologist and internist, kinesiologist, endocrinologist, naturopath, nutritionist, energetic practitioner and physical trainer.
       A featured element is the spa, which offers nine treatment rooms, including a therapy room with an Austrian weightless environment bed, a salt inhalation room for halotherapy and an herbal sauna.
       In a 2013 interview, after their purchase, Mackey and Smith said they both had personally benefited from wellness centers elsewhere.

Westside Pioneer article
(Posted 6/25/17; Business: New)

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