Fitness center, "healthy" fast-food restaurant may go up on site of former North Main Street concrete plant

That's right. Under a plan submitted by Hall Equities Group, you can spend an hour or more sweating, elevating your heart rate, toning up, and burning some calories at a new 24 Hour Fitness Center on North Main Street. Then, you can reward yourself.

You can walk across a parking lot to Chick-fil-A, a restaurant that serves what it calls "nutritious and tasty" chicken sandwiches, waffle fries, fruits, milkshakes and cheesecakes.

Walnut Creek's Design Review Commission will get a look at the plans for this fitness center/fast-food-drive-thru combo at its meeting Wednesday evening.

Hall Equities Group bought the former concrete batch plant on North Main Street in June 2008. The plant ceased operations in 2006, and the property covers a little more than four acres along Interstate 680, just south of Geary Road (and the now destroyed Piedmont Lumber Company). Hall Equities wants to tear down the old plant and construct two buildings and a parking lot.

The larger, 42,300-square-foot building would house the 24-Hour fitness club. The 4,300-square-foot chicken restaurant would also be a drive-thru. The two businesses would share a parking lot with space for about 280 vehicles. And, the developer would install landscaping and plant about 50 trees around the site.

Maybe you all from the South are familiar with the Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A chain. The founder, Truett Cathy, opened his first restaurant in Hapeville, Georgia in 1946. Cathy is also credited with inventing the boneless breast of chicken sandwich. The first Chick-fil-A officially opened in suburban Atlanta in 1967 and has since spread to 38 states and Washington D.C. with more than 1,400 locations. It looks like the only other Bay Area location for Chick-fil-A is in Fairfield.

The Chick-fil-A website goes to great effort to assure patrons that its food is healthy, with ingredients and preparations that are committed to freshness. The website also provides nutrition information that tells you, for example, that the chain's signature Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich, served on a toasted, buttered bun, has 430 calories, 17 grams of fat, and seven grams of sugar.

"Since the invention of our signature Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich in 1964, we've always cooked our breaded chicken products (and more recently, our Chick-fil-A-Waffle Potato Fries, too) in 100-percent fully refined peanut oil that's cholesterol and trans fat free," the website says. "The delicious taste of Chick-fil-A can fit into almost any healthy diet through moderation and balanced food choices."

Yes, I think you would have to enjoy those signature chicken sandwiches and waffle potato fries in moderation if you wanted to maintain a balanced diet...

Of course, I'm no facist when it comes to food choices. In fact, I'm a little bummed that In-N-Out isn't getting this prime spot in Walnut Creek. What better reward would there be for a good, hard workout at 24 Hour Fitness than an In-N-Out Double-Double? Plus chocolate shake?

Sure, there is a proposal to build an In-N-Out a bit up Main Street near Oak Park Boulevard, but that's over the border in that other town, Pleasant Hill. How can Walnut Creek truly be the center of Contra Costa's culinary universe without an In-N-Out?