Meet Marcell Allen! He is the owner of Brickhouse Training Facility in Gainesville, married to Ginger and beyond owning a training facility loves to play music.

We want to thank Marcell for talking to us recently about his life and love of Hall County.

Question: Please tell us a little bit about your background.

Answer: “I’m originally from New York, moved down here and stayed permanently when I was like 15 or 16. My grandfather got sick, so we came down here to take care of him. We ended up moving down here to the Jackson County area. I graduated from the Jefferson School System.
“I’ve always been a fan of fitness. My mother had Graves disease and I’ve always been interested in health. She was an herbalist and a teacher, so I was like, ‘okay, I want to be like her.’ I love educating people, I love educating myself and learning something new all the time.
“I’ve owned a few gyms. I’ve been a part of a lot of gyms. First one we ever had was in Jefferson, in 2003 and it was a Fitness Factory and then we bought the Iron Beast back in 2012.”

Q: When did you decide you wanted to be in Gainesville? And what do you do here?

A: “2007. This gym has been opened just recently, we’ve been here three months, and we were over on Martin Luther King for two and a half years. I opened it up over there at the end of 2018. We have grown fast through COVID…I think more people are starting to pay attention to health than ever before. I mean, everybody’s always been conscious of health and fitness but I think it’s grown a lot. I just love what we do here, we’re all about health and fitness and helping people and we entertain people. That’s what we do.”

Q: How many trainers do you have?

A: “13.”

Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about Hall County?

A: “Community. Honestly, especially being a business owner. It’s amazing to me how you can connect with people so quickly. When we go around town to eat lunch or something, some of the trainers will be together and everybody knows who we are. And I always thought that was really interesting.”

Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in Hall County?  What do you like to get there?

A: “I eat more before anybody did in their entire life. I was a bodybuilder. I competed in bodybuilding for 20 years and it just became a habit after that I just ended up eating a lot of chickens. We had 16 to 24 weeks of prep and I would have anywhere from 12 to 16 ounces of meat every sitting and I’m completely opposite of that now.”

Q: What is something on your bucket list?

A: “I’m kind of a hush kind of guy. This is the way I do things and I’m not really one of those people that sit and map out too many things, I wake up in the morning and if it comes across my brain, I’m doing that.”

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?

A: “Texas. I’ve been through it, but that’s one state I haven’t been to.”

Q: What’s your favorite movie or the first movie you saw in the theatre?

A: “’Lion King’ when I was like in 3rd grade.”

Q: What advice would you give to people?

A: “Don’t procrastinate. I’m not a procrastinator. If I’m going to do something, I want to get it done as quickly as possible. I understand, crossing T’s and dotting I’s but the way I look at it, if you take your time waiting to do something, somebody is going to do it before you.”

Q: Who are your favorite three musicians?

A: “Prince is one of them, then my cousin, Zuri – she’s a bass player for Nick Jonas and Carter Beauford, he’s the drummer for Dave Matthews. I’m a percussionist and I have a piano so I’ve always looked up to him.”

Q: Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years?

A: “Let’s say the five year mark, I want to have four different gyms for open or for additions since I want to cover the Northeast part of the Georgia. In 10 years, I want to have somebody else running this thing and I want to have 15 locations all across the United States.”

Q: What three words mean home to you?

A: “Brickhouse Training Facility.”