CARLSBAD -- From lockers paneled in dark wood to a high-tech indoor therapy pool with its own underwater elevator, Tri-City Healthcare District's first foray into southern Carlsbad is decidedly upscale.

Scheduled to open Jan. 5, the 60,000-square-foot wellness center on El Camino Real just south of Palomar Airport Road seeks to combine the amenities of a high-end health club with the supervision of full-time nurses and physical therapists.

Josh Mello, executive director of the Tri-City Wellness Center, said the facility and programs within its two stories are designed to make working out as enticing as possible for middle-age and older residents who want more help in getting and staying healthy.

People often come up with excuses to avoid the gym, such as "the locker rooms are dirty" or "I don't know how to get started," Mello said.

"We're trying to remove as many of those barriers as possible to get people living a more healthy lifestyle," he said.

Most of the Wellness Center's second floor is occupied by workout equipment, including a 10th-mile circular running track, the latest weight-lifting machines and rows of treadmills, each with its own small television screen.

On the ground floor are three swimming pools: A four-lane lap pool, a therapy pool for water aerobics classes and a high-tech but much smaller pool equipped with an electronic lift to help injured members get into the water.

The ground floor also includes meeting rooms where Tri-City doctors will give private health lectures on topics ranging from heart disease to arthritis.

Next to the meeting rooms is a small cafe where members can grab a healthy snack or beverage.

Follow a hall west and visitors enter the center's "mind-body studio," an Asian-themed room with bamboo floors and subdued lighting.

This room, Mello said, will house all yoga, tai-chi, Pilates and other serene forms of exercise that benefit from concentration.

"We didn't want to have the pounding aerobics class right next door because that can be distracting," Mello said. "Those classes will all be upstairs."

The new building's expensive and modern decor and its collection of high-end amenities, including private shower stalls in the men's and women's locker rooms, give the feel of a private health club for well-heeled executives.

But hospital officials are quick to point out that health care delivery is at the core of the center.

The pools, for example, include special entry ramps and a hoist for those who use wheelchairs.

Likewise, there are private changing rooms for members who need assistance getting into and out of bathing suits.

The treadmills and other workout machines upstairs are equipped with special telemetry computers so that an on-duty nurse can monitor the rehabilitation efforts of patients recuperating from surgery.

The building also has its own in-house physical therapy unit available to all members.

By integrating health care with self-maintenance through exercise, Tri-City officials say they are serving a public need similar to the one served at the main hospital in Oceanside.

"We are helping people take care of themselves by staying out of the hospital in the first place," hospital spokesman Jeff Segall said.

The total bill for the wellness center is $42 million; however, Tri-City paid only about $10 million.

A private health care development company built and owns the building.

Tri-City will lease the building from the company with money collected from membership dues.

A single monthly membership costs $85; a family membership is $205.

Though the facility includes fee-based child care, children are not allowed to use any other amenities.

Behind the main wellness center building is a two-story doctor's office complex.

The idea was for primary care physicians to open offices there and refer patients to the wellness center for physical therapy when necessary.

But hospital Vice President Allen Coleman said that, so far, not one doctor has signed a lease.

He said Tri-City, as a public agency, must charge doctors market-rate rent for an office in the new building.

That rent, at this point, is between $290 and $340 per square foot.

"Primary care doctors do not make as much as specialists," Coleman said. "If I wanted to lease to chiropractors or dentists, I could fill it up in minutes, but we have a need in this area for primary care doctors."

The hospital recently spent more than $1 million to recruit several primary care doctors to the region, and Coleman said they may be relocated from Oceanside offices to the Carlsbad facility to get it up and running.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.