Moravian College has purchased the former 24-7 Fitness Club, 1441 Schoenersville Road, Bethlehem, and is partnering with St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) to develop a center for sports medicine that will integrate academic learning with real-world programs and services.

Moravian College will renovate the interior of the building which has approximately 27,800-square-feet of usable space.

"We are pleased to partner with St. Luke's University Health Network, a nationally recognized teaching hospital with an exceptional commitment to the advancement of medical education," said Bryon L. Grigsby '90, president of Moravian College.

"We anticipate the development of programs of mutual benefit that will provide our students with hands on clinical experiences as we build a complex that will serve as a center of learning for our students, and serve the sports medicine and physical therapy needs of the community," Grigsby said.

St. Luke's University Health Network recently became the official sports medicine provider for Moravian's 18 NCAA Division III athletics programs.

Moravian College is developing a master's level athletic training program that will be offered through the college's Comenius Center for continuing and graduate studies that is expected to start during summer-fall 2016.

"We are excited to expand our sports medicine services in the Bethlehem region while partnering with a great college like Moravian. We look forward to working with them to establish a national reputation for athletic training education and sports medicine research," said John Hauth, senior director of sports medicine relationships at St. Luke's.

"This unique program will feature expert faculty from Moravian College as well as nationally recognized clinician-scholars from St. Luke's University Health Network," said Hauth.

The building will include specially-designed classroom and laboratory spaces for the master's level program in athletic training and other health care professions. In addition, the facility will include research laboratories for collaborative projects with faculty, students and employees of the St. Luke's network.

"We are currently designing and programming the overall space utilization of the building and hope to complete the renovation by December 2015, at which point SLUHN would begin to utilize the facility," said Mark Reed, vice president for administration at Moravian College.

"The project will include the complete renovation of some spaces, and more modest renovations and repurposing of other spaces," Reed said.

"St. Luke's University Health Network will lease approximately 9,000-square-feet of space from the college," said Robert Martin, Senior Vice President for Network Development, St. Luke's University Health Network.

The remaining space will be used to support academic programming developed by the college in conjunction with SLUHN.

"The space will house a comprehensive sports medicine program that will include orthopedic surgeons, primary care sports medicine physicians, physical therapists, athletic trainers and other sports medicine specialists," Martin said.

The center will be open to the general public as well as the faculty, staff and students of Moravian College.

St. Luke's University Health Network is a nonprofit, regional, nationally recognized Network providing services at more than 200 sites, primarily in Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill, Bucks, Montgomery, Berks and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania and in Warren County, N.J.

Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, in Bethlehem. Moravian, which traces its founding to 1742, is recognized as the United States' sixth-oldest college and the first to educate women.