Franchisee Stuart Rosenberg is opening his latest Fitness4Less Club in Worcester, West Midlands, this month – his first outside of London.

The Gym in Cathedral Square is part of a £20m (US$25.9m, €21.8m) mixed-use scheme in the the city and will create up to 20 jobs.

The £1.8m (US$2.3m, €2m), 14,500sq ft (1,347sq m) fitness centre will include a swimming pool, sauna and steamrooms, and is equipped with Life Fitness equipment, hammer strength weights, a Prowler running track, ladies-only gym and studios providing more than 50 free classes each week.

Started by Rosenberg in 2010, Affordable Fitness opened its first Fitness4Less franchise in London’s Cambridge Heath in 2011, followed by Canning Town in the capital in 2013. Keen to grow the business, Rosenberg started looking outside of London for his next project.

“When I researched the site at Cathedral Square I was immediately impressed by the potential,” he said. “With its location in a prime position opposite the cathedral, the fact that it had attracted some of the UK’s biggest hospitality brands and that there was no other affordable gym and swim facility in Worcester, it all added up to the ideal choice.”

Allied Irish Bank (GB) is backing the project with £1.1m (US$1.4m, €1.2m) worth of funding. Its healthcare and leisure sector specialist Jamie Ward said: “Stuart has built a very successful operation in London and is carving a niche in a growing segment of the fitness sector, enabling a wide range of ages and abilities to access the latest high-tech facilities at very affordable membership rates.”

Fitness4Less will have 12 clubs in the UK when the Worcester gym opens on 25 September.