Salem — As the town works on a new marketing plan to attract businesses, a new fitness center is under construction at Salem Four Corners and is scheduled to open in October.

Anytime Fitness, which will be opening at 24 Hartford Road, will be the only fitness center in town, according to Frank Sroka, chairman of the Economic Development Commission. Entrepreneurial endeavors like personal training, technology support or small medical laboratories are the types of business that could work well in town, he said.

In addition to attracting new businesses, the EDC is also committed to helping existing businesses.

On Sept. 19, the commission will discuss a draft of a survey it plans to send to businesses in town, asking how the commission can help.

Following discussions at that meeting, the EDC will be sending outreach surveys to determine what Salem-based enterprises need from the commission and the town. Sroka said the commission can then use the information to support those businesses and help them expand.

Once businesses receive the survey, they will have two or three weeks to respond, he said. The survey will also include a raffle for free advertising space in the quarterly Our Town Salem publication as an incentive to respond.

The EDC is compiling a list of businesses in Salem to create a directory to distribute to residents. Sroka said the commission will be reaching out to businesses to see which ones are interested in being promoted in the directory, which will be published next year.

The survey and directory are part of a plan announced earlier in the summer to both support existing businesses and attract new ones. The commission has been working with Minuteman Press to fulfill both parts of the plan.

Incoming businesses would have to fit in with Salem's rural character, Sroka said. He said he could picture a business that rents bikes or other recreational equipment to people visiting the trails in town, or a tack shop that serves the already vibrant equine community of the area.

Fox Farm Brewery, slated to open on Music Vale Road later this year, is another example, he said.

Since most of the available commercial space in Salem is located at the Four Corners, the commission would have to start investigating other locations for development if the buildings there are filled with new businesses like Anytime Fitness. Sroka said he has been working with town planner Richard Serra to look at commercially zoned properties on the eastern side of town by Gardner Lake as options for the future.

a.hutchinson@theday.com