Fitting in Fitness : Busy Downtown Types Can Get the Works in Nearby Clubs, Salons

By MAUREEN SAJBEL

March 1, 1991 12 AM PT

Suppose you get a last-minute call at your downtown office from a friend who has tickets to the Ahmanson and you don’t have time to run home to fix your hair and makeup. Or you hear there’s a SigAlert on the Santa Monica Freeway and you know by the time you crawl home you won’t have the energy to go to the gym.

Several beauty and fitness centers downtown, where 214,000 people--more than half of them women--work, offer some handy solutions in such situations.

* Aida Grey has 90 salons worldwide. The newest, 517 S. Olive St., which opened in January, offers facials, massages, hair styling, makeup, waxing and nail treatments for men and women. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

* The Biltmore Hotel Health Club, 506 S. Grand Ave., is open to hotel guests and club members who pay a $125 initiation fee and $470 in annual dues. The small, uncrowded, co-ed workout room has modern exercise equipment, but the star attraction is the 1926 swimming pool with original tile. Hours: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

* The Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 W. 7th St., opened in 1880 and has been co-ed for more than 50 years. The ratio of men to women is 6 to 1. The women’s area was renovated last year in an effort to attract new members, who pay a $425 initiation fee and dues ranging from $57 to $107 a month. Hours: 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Members can also make appointments for hair-, nail- and skin-care services in the new in-club branch of Vera’s Retreat, which also has salons in Westwood and Tarzana.

* The Sanwa Spa in the New Otani Hotel, 120 S. Los Angeles St., is 14 years old and has a sauna, a Jacuzzi, showers and semiprivate massage rooms. Japanese-trained masseuses give $50 Shiatsu acupressure massages. Hours: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

* The 4-year-old Ketchum-Downtown YMCA, 401 S. Hope St., is one of the busiest clubs in the area. Members, who pay a $200 initiation and $45 a month, can use the Y’s equipment and pool, plus choose from a full range of classes. Hours: 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.