The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed the new fitness center, Midwest Health & Performance, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at their new downtown location Thursday morning.

“This is a little surreal,” owner Jared Martin said of their opening, which came after about 90 days of work in converting the downtown building at 13 S. National Ave. “It’s very exciting for our team to be able to provide this service here for our community.”

The center will bring services including functional medicine provided by Heather Davis of Premier Functional Health, chiropractic services by Grant Hartman of Hartman Spine & Joint, as well as fitness training by CrossFit trainer Brooks Narvaez.

Hartman, who opened a Fort Scott chiropractic clinic 14 months ago with Davis, his wife, said they wanted to bring their services to an underserviced area. Martin said he is excited about the potential of the facility, which also provides nine new jobs to Fort Scott.

“It’s such a group effort to do what we do,” Narvaez said of the team of employees as well as the gym members who helped with the building.

City Manager Dave Martin said he is grateful for the vision of the team involved with Midwest Health & Performance and their goal of making people’s lives better. Chamber of Commerce director Lindsay Madison also expressed appreciation for their investment in Fort Scott’s downtown.

“It’s so inspiring for downtown to see this building preserved, remodeled, revamped into this wonderful place,” Madison said. “We’re focusing on health as a whole as a community…I think this is just one more asset towards that goal of being an overall healthy community.”