Commercial real estate developer Leroy M. Merritt, whose 13 million square feet of industrial and office properties in the Baltimore-Washington area include several athletic clubs, will make a gift of $2 million to McDaniel College to support the construction of a new fitness center on its Westminster, Md., campus.

Mr. Merritt is a 1952 graduate of Western Maryland College, which changed its name to McDaniel College in 2002.  “I was a 17-year-old kid from Dundalk when I entered college; little did I know that my time in college would be the best four years of my life,” said Merritt, an economics major whose entrepreneurial acumen was apparent even as an undergraduate. “I am pleased to contribute what I hope will be a beautiful addition to the campus.”

Leroy Merritt Fitness Center (Select Image for a larger view)

The new fitness center, to be named the Leroy Merritt Fitness Center, will span two stories and create a new entrance to the Gill Center, home to the College’s 24 athletic teams. The fitness center project estimated at $4 million will feature several distinct areas where various activities, such as individual workouts on cutting-edge equipment, team weight training, and Pilates classes, can happen simultaneously. A dramatic glass curtain wall will offer stunning westerly views of live action on Green Terror playing fields and sunsets over the Catoctin Mountains beyond. Other improvements include a new media center and food court for students and sporting events spectators

The Leroy Merritt Fitness Center, scheduled to break ground in April, is to be the first phase of an overall expansion and renovation of McDaniel’s recreation complex. Enhancing student life at the private liberal arts college where 85 percent of students reside on campus is a key focus of McDaniel’s 10-year campus master plan, adopted in 2003.

During his student days, Mr. Merritt enjoyed boxing, football, playing golf on the College’s hillside 9-hole course, and piling classmates into his 1932 Plymouth for rides to the Pit, a downtown Westminster hangout. He always had spending money, thanks to the business he operated with a buddy selling late-night hot dogs, sandwiches and sodas to guys in the residence halls long after the dining hall closed and female students had gone inside to meet their 10 p.m. curfew.

Summer jobs as a block layer taught Mr. Merritt much about the construction business. A two-year teaching stint after graduation—undertaken, in part, to fulfill a requirement of the senatorial scholarship that sent him to college—instilled in him an abiding interest in helping young people. As his real estate dynasty has grown, so has his philanthropic portfolio. Merritt Properties supports dozens of organizations, such as The Children’s Guild, Special Olympics and Junior Achievement of Central Maryland, while Merritt has personally sponsored many college scholars.

“Leroy is a wonderful alumnus; he has been helping people and changing lives his entire career,” said Bob Warfield, a 1962 graduate and McDaniel College trustee who serves on the institutional advancement and buildings and grounds committees. “We are the college that changes lives and that means educating the whole person. Physical fitness is an important part of a well-lived life, and Leroy’s gift will help us build an irresistible facility that draws everyone in to exercise.”

McDaniel’s new fitness center is designed by Marshall Craft Associates of Baltimore. The firm also designed the new 46,000 square-foot Academic Hall that opened in October 2005 and won a Masonry Institute of Maryland Design Award. Project contractor will be Henry H. Lewis Contractors, LLC of Owings Mills.

                 Interior Views (Select images for a larger view)

                      View from fitness center window
                      (Select image for a larger view)