Thursday, October 1, 2026
Let’s get physical — in East Rockaway!
Residents will soon be able to spin, kick box, body sculpt, play virtual golf, or just get a healthy snack at the full-service café when ROK Health & Fitness opens its doors in August.
Picture walking into a glass entrance, and on your left, a lounge with a fireplace; check in at the desk, and then take the softly-circular path (all the walls are curved) toward the open-spaced workout floor. Feel like taking in a movie? Slip into the cardio theater, complete with stadium seating. While a big screen plays feature entertainment, you can exercise to your heart’s content. Later on, check out the rows of equipment, the half-basketball court, the spa-like locker rooms, eucalyptus steam room, and the private bathrooms and changing rooms.
Ready to feel fit, healthy and pampered? Owners Michael Hawksby and Robert Durso hope so.
“I had a health club in New Jersey,“ said Hawksby, who lives in Freehold Township. “I wanted to do something on Long Island, and I came here after I saw the trends in business.” He said that he and Durso, who have been friends and business associates for two years and have been working on this project for a year and a half, had to find the right location and building size. Durso is a Rockville Centre resident and is the owner of Bob’s Auto Body in Lynbrook.
But why East Rockaway? “This was a great fit for everyone,” said Durso. “For us, for the village, transforming something that’s been a eyesore, and making it something that [will be] useful for everyone.” Durso said that it would be like changing “an ugly duckling.”
In October of 2010, The East Rockaway village board voted unanimously to approve a new plan to rezone a portion of the industrial district into a commercial-recreation zone. The new plan focuses on the northern portion of the existing industrial zone, which includes the Berg properties, a CVS drug store and other buildings.
“This was a building with an outdated use,” said Hawksby. “Now it will be transformed into a 21st-century use. The size, the location, the village of East Rockaway, the Long Island Rail Road — this was the perfect location to run this size of an operation. And we needed the space.”
