West Cobb is set to get a fancy new gym. "Club Studio," an upscale gym from Fitness International, LLC, is to open in place of multiple vacant spaces at The Avenue West Cobb (3625 Dallas Highway).
The new Club Studio will open in place of three vacant spaces at the suburban lifestyle center currently anchored by Barnes & Noble. Specifically, Club Studio will occupy a space created by combining the spaces left vacant by Pier 1 Imports, Charming Charlie, and Simply Mac, all of which closed after their respective bankruptcies. (Spirit Halloween has regularly occupied the former Charming Charlie seasonally.)
This past October, New York-based Acadia Realty paid $62.5 million for The Avenue West Cobb, a collectively 260,000 square foot retail center. The seller, PGIM Real Estate, had paid $81.3 million for the shopping center in 2006. The purchase was seen as a "value add" opportunity for Acadia, and while Club Studio is a nice improvement over vacant space, it's not the Trader Joe's that many people wanted, and that the center's former sibling, The Avenue Peachtree City, recently added.
Club Studio is positioned as a premium gym experience - akin to Life Time [Fitness] - and is the sibling of LA Fitness. There is currently just one Club Studio in metro Atlanta, in Brookhaven, where it opened in place of a former LA Fitness at TOWN Brookhaven this past August.
If the pricing at the Brookhaven Club Studios is any indication, prospective members in West Cobb are in for some serious sticker shock.
According to the Club Studio website, pricing for the Brookhaven location currently starts at $189 per month and goes up to as much as $249 per month. There is no LA Fitness in West Cobb but a location on the East West Connector in Austell offers memberships starting at $29.99 per month topping out at $39.99 per month.
(A nearby Crunch Fitness offers memberships starting at $9.99 per month that top out at $29.99 per month.)
The Irvine, California-based gym operator currently operates more than three dozen facilities under the LA Fitness branding in the greater metro Atlanta area. (A location in Kennesaw closed this past December after about fourteen years in business.) Overall, Fitness International has more than 700 locations across the country.
The Brookhaven gym features five specialized studios: CS4 (Run. Ski. Row. Reps.), yoga, cycling, boxing, and reformer pilates, as well as more traditional gym offerings like free weights, cardio equipment, a lap pool, and basketball courts. Also available are so-called "holistic wellness" offerings like compression therapy, full-body cryotherapy, and saunas. Club Studios also feature a retail boutique and an on-premise "beaming" cafe with smoothies, bowls, and coffees as well as a curated assortment of packaged vitamins, supplements, beverages, and snacks.
The first Club Studio debuted in December 2022 in the company's home market of Irvine in southern California. Club Studio Irvine opened in place of a former Orchard Supply Hardware, a bankrupt regional hardware store. Today there are about twenty Club Studio locations open with about thirty more coming soon, according to the Club Studio website.
There is reportedly at least one more Club Studio in the works in metro Atlanta, where, as in Brookhaven, it would replace an existing LA Fitness. The West Cobb location should debut in 2027 followed by the other metro Atlanta location in 2028.
Have you ever been to a Club Studio? What is the maximum amount you would pay for a monthly gym membership? Are you excited about Club Studio opening in West Cobb?
Please share your thoughts below.
We used to go to Brookhaven LA fitness all the time. It was busy. Since we still frequent the Costco across the way, we have noticed almost no one ever entering or leaving Club Studio. Good luck
ReplyDeleteCalifornia is absolute trash 🗑️ ... So LA Fitness converted a successful location into a more luxurious upscale gym called club stupido I mean studio. With that they injected the LA price of 3 times the normal rate of la fitness. Do they think we are stupid? This is Georgia. Normal people with common sense. Now they are going to open in West Cobb?? An area where normal people work hard for their money an don't intend to just give it away! They would rather pay for kids college education or a second home on the beach. This isn't Buckhead. They must be stuck on Hollywood - building it and they will come. Ring ring ... OZ said to come back home!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with you, you could have just said that this is a poor fit for that area.
DeleteAs I was starting to read this, I thought the monthly dues would run 4 figures. Surprised to see it's as low as it is. Before LAF acquired Australian Body Works, I paid $225 a year. That contract/deal was honored by LAF, but after several years of pi$$ing away money, I had to quit. LAF was not convenient, and pretty dirty. Good luck to Club Studio.
ReplyDelete