BEN COWAN now has two Snap Fitness operations open in St. Paul, with plans for one or two more perhaps in six months. He thought he’d be up and running there in 2006.

That’s when he first sought approval to open the 24-hour franchised fitness centers, but to his surprise ran into a “no” from the city of St. Paul.

Figuring city officials had concerns about the health and safety of the customers, Cowan began emphasizing Snap Fitness’s security features, such as a panic button and a locked facility.

After many months of dead ends, he finally met up with Dave Thune, the long-time City Council member, who told him the real concern: prostitution. St. Paul had fought long and hard to rid the city of out-of-the-way outlets used for prostitution. In fact, Thune had written the original ordinance requiring, for one thing, an on-site employee at all times of operation. Even though such a requirement torpedoes the Snap Fitness business model, making it unprofitable, Thune didn’t budge, Cowan says.

So Cowan got busy. Helped by Bob Kessler at the city, he went to the mayor’s office, the building inspections department, the city council. Goff & Howard, the St. Paul-based public relations firm, was hired by Snap Fitness corporate, and Mike Zipko there started getting appointments for Cowan with key city council members.

The media got involved, doing stories when a competitor, Anytime Fitness, who was already doing business in St. Paul, ran into the same ordinance that had stopped Cowan. Cowan worked to re-write the ordinance, ending with some 19 points such as security surveillance and much more designed to keep out the illegitimate operators but allow the legit.

Finally, the fight came down to the last day of a 30-day public comment period, during which anyone could lodge a concern to stop the enactment of the new ordinance.

“I’m scheduled to open two locations the day after Thanksgiving,” Cowan  says. “I have about $200,000 invested in this location. At 4:15 on Friday,” the last day of the comment period, “they got an e-mail with an objection. The whole thing started over.”

Cowan called the person with the concern, got the mayor’s office to address the concern, and he was allowed to open. The alternative was to wait until early January to bring the complaint before an administrative law judge.

Cowan says his two St. Paul locations, in the Macalester/Groveland neighborhood and on the East Side, are going very well. He says he learned a lot through the process, including respect for the dedication of public servants, and the realization that his passion is to operate his business.

“Persistence pays off,” Cowan says. “I could have thrown in the towel probably 20 times. I was told ‘No’ so many times. You just keep going back and working with people to find out their concerns.”