People excercize in the weight room at the Sisters Athletic Club in Sisters. 06/11/25 (Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin)

Tate Metcalf spent 24 years being the muscle behind the Sister’s Athletic Club.

But now it’s time for him to pump up his own life with new adventures. Metcalf, co-owner of the Sister’s Athletic Club, is looking for a buyer of his gym. He’s asking $7.1 million for the business, said Ken Streater, Aligned Commercial Real Estate principal broker. 

“I’m like your old school guy who has done the same thing for 39 years,” said Metcalf. “This is a great industry. It’s a great time for the next person to take on the business.”

There are almost a dozen athletic clubs in Sisters today, but when Metcalf started out in 2000, the city didn’t have a sewer system. The population was 911 people. Today there’s more than 3,000.

“When I started out, I wanted to do something unique and make a positive impact on the community,” Metcalf said. “We went for high quality. Typical when a club like this starts out its barebones. You throw some equipment into a warehouse space and encourage people to bang on the weights.”

But Metcalf’s vision included an indoor swimming pool for swimming or hydrofit classes.

In 200

In 2004 he bought the building the business is in now and expanded it in 2008. Today he has 1,400 members and offers year-round hydrofit classes in the 24,000-square-foot building that he owns on 1.5 acres of land in the FivePine development.

“Everything is status quo. If someone doesn’t come around soon, it’s not a big deal,” Metcalf said. “We’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”

Cece Montgomery, 82, is an avid participant of the hydrofit classes. The Sisters resident goes three times a week. While the fitness is fun, the camaraderie is what keeps her going.

“It’s just such a friendly place,” Montgomery said. “I love the people. I joined for the swimming. I can even walk from my house.”

The water exercise is perfect for her, especially after her knee replacements, she said.

The hydrofit club is such a tight-knit group that it holds regular potlucks at the facility, Metcalf said. 

Still the future holds room for growth. Not only in the town of Sisters, but with the gym, Metcalf said. While the club currently doesn’t allow for drop-in members, it has space to add more classes, or even an outdoor swimming pool, Metcalf said. There’s also room for a pickleball court, he said. 

“I have been in this industry for so long, it’s showing as we have people coming in from out of the area to look at the club,” Metcalf said. “We have a large number of people within the area that I am in discussion with about the club. I thought it would take a few years, and it very well may, but things are heating up faster than I expected.”

Still, the new owner needs to keep that sense of community going.

“I’ve never belonged to a club before,” said Montgomery, a long-term member of the club. “You get out of a shower and towels are provided and it’s an experience I never had in my life.”