Fueling Fitness

The Dabishes from left to right: Henry, Michael, William, Ibtisam, William Jr. and Victor. Powerhouse Gym interior.

Powerhouse Gym reflects family’s work ethic

By Paul Natinsky

The Dabish family turned Powerhouse Gym into, well, a worldwide powerhouse.

Family patriarch Will Dabish and his brother, Norm, broke away from the family grocery business through a series of circumstances and improbable events.

As immigrants’ kids, the brothers didn’t speak English when they were young. Will failed first and third grade as a result. The boys endured beatings from older and bigger kids in the neighborhood. The circumstances called out for a solution.

The Dabishes decided to learn karate to toughen up and defend themselves. They came into contact with Brian Frost, a local sensei who ultimately gained an international following. Studying under Frost, the Dabishes regularly sparred when they weren’t working in their father’s grocery. Will weighed about 80 pounds less than Norm and decided to add weight training to his martial arts training. So began the unlikely series of events for a pair of grocer’s sons.

The boy’s father, Karim, suffered a heart attack and had open-heart surgery. He was unable to work, so the job of taking care of the family fell to his sons. Faced with responsibility for the family but hating the grocery business and its perishable inventory, Will and Norm sought a “cleaner” way to make a living. Martial arts supply seemed the answer.

In the early 1970s, Norm and Will took a karate training trip to Japan and returned to open a martial arts supply store in Highland Park. Amateur fighters, the pair decided to construct a gym in the back of the place to try to sell memberships. They figured the scheme would pay off — or they would be grocers with “the best private gym in the world,” said Will.

The scheme worked. The brothers hung a sign that simply said “gym” on the steel door of the windowless building in Highland Park. Will says he and his brother were not good at marketing at this point in their careers, so they started out with a membership roster that was willing to brave the rather intimidating location — “half convicted felons and half cops,” says Will.

Forty-five years later, Powerhouse Gym is an international powerhouse with 302 licensees in 24 states and 18 countries. Dabish said his company is the first Chaldean-owned company to go worldwide.

Success came slowly. After the gym opened in ’74, the Dabish brothers, who were living at home, began to build a following for their gym as “the” place to work out. They got a big boost from University of Michigan football players who defied legendary coach Bo Schembechler’s weightlifting ban (he thought it made players slow) and trained at Powerhouse. The players wore Powerhouse t-shirts, and the brand started to grow.

Still, it was not until 1984 that Norm and Will expanded to open their second gym in Farmington Hills. Things moved quickly from there. In 1986, the brothers created a franchise concept and sold a license to a Lincoln Park operator. By 1989, the company had grown to 18 locations, with gyms in Boston and Florida.

The Dabish brothers do not have business degrees. Will said their business acumen is “from God.” Whatever the source, Dabish said he and his brother decided they needed to open marquee gyms at high-profile locations in major cities. A 24,000-square-foot club at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street in Chicago became the first of these “billboard gyms,” combining a quality workout facility with a promotional message in an upscale, high-traffic area. By 1995, the company had 175 locations. By 2000, the tally was up to 300.

In subsequent years, the total rose to about 350 and slowed by design. Will’s son, Henry, is now CEO and Will focuses on launching a new generation of mega gyms that offer services ranging from physical therapy, basketball and racquetball courts to massage chairs and the company’s trademark FX Powerhouse workouts, which incorporate non-traditional training methods and equipment. “I plan to work forever,” said Will, 66.

The faith and perseverance that have distilled in Will come, in part, from the examples set by his father and grandfather, Putrus. Will says his family and later, the larger community fled religious persecution and harsh living conditions in northern Iraq to pursue a better life in the United States. The village pooled its resources and sent its most capable people to America to establish themselves and lay the foundations for a community in the United States.

Will prays daily, works hard and does not let failure discourage him. But he said the most important message he learned from his father was to fear no man, only God. He learned to trust his instincts and moral compass. If he believed in something, he would pursue it resolutely; if he believed something was wrong, he would avoid it with the same zeal.

“You don’t have to fear taking personal gambles or business gambles,” says Will.

On the heels of business success came a severe test of perseverance. The COVID pandemic affected the fitness industry intensely in 2020-2021.

Much like the barbershops, restaurants, and bars, gyms were hit hard and early by government-enforced closure mandates. Also, much like other closed industries, gym owners began to demand solid numbers on the risks of remaining open and devising ways to make their businesses safe for reopening.

Initially, the fitness facility industry in Michigan did what many forcibly closed industries did—applied for loans and grants to stay afloat. Powerhouse Gym CEO Henry Dabish said March and April were a blur of grant and loan requests. Dabish and his extended family own several Michigan locations and hold them as individual business entities, so each one required a separate filing.

Henry said all 14 of his company’s directly owned Michigan gyms received Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, and all but one received some grant money.

The biggest challenge for Powerhouse in 2020 was to get information from the government and disseminate the information to franchisees. Powerhouse also spent a lot of time setting up unemployment for employees. The system was overwhelmed. PPP loans helped, particularly with employees who are living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Once a business lifeline was established, gym owners began talking to one another. Dabish connected with several other Michigan fitness facility owners, including Bryan Rief, who owns 50 Planet Fitness Gyms in Michigan and Ohio; Alyssa Tushman, a founder and owner of three Burn Fitness locations in metro Detroit; and real estate investment professional Ed Eickhoff, among others.

During these conversations, Henry learned that other states allowed gym re-openings as early as the end of May. He discovered through an Ohio franchise owner that the Buckeye State’s re-opening requirements included establishing a professional association to develop and present safe re-opening standards for the industry.

In response to this news, Henry formed the Michigan Fitness Club Association, and its members quickly got to work. They drafted a board, codified re-opening standards, hired a Lansing multi-client lobby firm and met with officials from Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s office.

Progress with the government was slow. Dabish said the group got no response from Whitmer’s office. In the end, Henry said MFCA-submitted standards are stricter than the requirements eventually established by state government.

Gyms tended to take cleaning seriously, even prior to the pandemic. Part of gym etiquette is members wiping down exercise machines with sanitizer after each use. Gym employees also seem to be constantly cleaning.

Formed of crisis, the MFCA remains intact and continues to advocate for the gym industry in Michigan. After the pandemic, the group continued to work on an agenda that includes ensuring due process for further regulations, repealing a federal “tanning tax,” establishing tax credits for gym memberships, insurance discounts for memberships and preserving an existing sales tax exemption.

Henry says the MCFA is the only state fitness industry remaining and it continues to provide education and administer grant money to its members.

The foundation set by Putrus and Karim and carried forward by Will and Norm is poised to continue. All four of Will’s sons—Henry’s older brother William and younger brothers Victor and Michael—are joined by Norm’s son Johnny as the Powerhouse leadership team of the future.

Will and Norm are self-made men who left school to provide for their families. Their children went off to college but came back to carry on the family business.

“We try to stay out of each other’s hair, so we all have different departments,” says Henry, who handles “licensing, vendors and legal trademark stuff.” The other brothers and their cousin Johnny oversee the larger clubs and various locations.

“A lot of the things (my dad) picked up from his father he instilled in us as well. Growing up I saw my dad pray every single morning. He’s a religious guy,” says Henry. “Work ethic was always there. He worked a lot, but always made time for us.”

Henry says his family sees him pray every morning before heading out for long days at work. And so the tradition continues.