That's because the success of the center will depend, in large part, on three businessmen who have teamed to operate the center.

Gary Nielsen, the owner of four Gold's Gyms in Ogden, Roy and Layton, is a partner with Sean Collins and David Rutter, two Utah County residents who own Fat Cats family entertainment centers in Salt Lake City and Provo.

The three have formed a limited liability company, Health & Fitness, which will have an overall lease of the center, paying about $58,000 per month in rent to the city.

Their lease payments would cover the payments on up to $9.5 million in bonds the city will sell, provided the lame-duck council tonight agrees to the plan proposed by Mayor Matthew Godfrey's administration. The administration also wants to sell up to $8.5 million in bonds to be repaid with property taxes on 10 previous redevelopment projects. A $2 million HUD loan also is to be thrown into the pot.

Rec center opponents say the city should require the private businesses to use their own money, but Godfrey and the partners contend they never would agree to build in downtown Ogden if not for the city's willingness to take the risk.

How much risk is there? That's where the leap of faith comes in.

There was only one feasibility study performed for the project, and that was funded by Fat Cats. It applied only to the bowling-arcade-restaurants portion of the project. That study predicted success.

There was no feasibility study performed for Gold's Gym and the least-proven parts of the venture: an air tunnel for simulated sky-diving, a wave pool and climbing wall.

The city is buying the equipment for those later attractions.

One clue that the financial markets consider the venture somewhat risky is that the deal requires a back-up revenue source should the first two sources - the lease payments by Health & Fitness and the property taxes from other projects - fail.

The council is being asked to use, as back-up collateral, the revenue at Business Depot Ogden, the successful city-owned business park that is being built on the site of the old Defense Depot.

Gold Gym's Nielsen concedes that Ogden's involvement is key. "It would be very hard to finance on our own."

Godfrey and several City Council members who have seen the financial records of the three partners say they have deep enough pockets to take the time to build entertainment and recreation businesses in downtown Ogden.

"Their financials are very impressive . . . much stronger than I ever would have expected them to be," said Godfrey.

Although Godfrey says the three partners will invest close to $4 million in the project up front, Nielsen says his calculations put the amount closer to $2 million.

Nielsen, 56, first bought the old Deseret Gymnasium in 1993, renaming it Total Fitness Center until he bought the Gold's Gym franchise in late 1999, along with the Gold's Gym in Roy. He also acquired the Layton Gold's Gym and another on 12th Street in Ogden in 2001.

Rutter, 42, and Collins, 39, are entrepreneurs who have been involved in dozens of companies over the years. Rutter has been a restaurateur and formerly had a multilevel marketing company. Collins' import-export business supplies grocery baskets to Albertson's stores nationwide.

The two teamed up about five years ago to build the Fat Cats family entertainment center in Salt Lake City, and that did well enough for them to build a second Fat Cats in Provo the next year.

The partners have been sued several times over the years, and tax liens have been placed - and satisfied - against companies in which Collins had an interest in the 1990s. A tax lien against Fat Cats was because of an accountant's error and was remedied, the partners said.

Rutter and Collins have been sued repeatedly in 3rd District Court by an architect who claims he is owed money for work on Fat Cats. Three of his suits have been dismissed and another is pending.

Nielsen was sued in 1999 in 2nd District Court by a former employee of Total Fitness Center who claimed she was sexually harassed in 1997. That lawsuit was settled out of court in 2000, and Nielsen and his wife counter-sued. Nielsen said the case had no merit and he aggressively defended the suit, but that the terms of the settlement were confidential.

Godfrey said his administration looked into the various lawsuits.

"We weren't nervous," he said. "Being sued and having claims made is part of doing business today."

kmoulton@sltrib.com