Planet Fitness has agreed to open its fifth Manhattan location at Essex Crossing, the large mixed-used project now under construction on the former Seward Park urban renewal site.
A 22,000 sq. ft. fitness center will be part of a building at 145 Clinton St., on Essex Crossing site 5. The facility is taking the second floor of a complex that will also include a still-to-be named grocery store and 211 apartments.
Planet Fitness has locations on East 14th Street, Canal Street in Tribeca, West 27th Street and Midtown West. Another club is scheduled to open across from Madison Square Garden this fall. The New York facilities are operated as a franchise of the larger Planet Fitness chain, which has more than one-thousand clubs across the country.
The Clinton Street site is one of four development parcels now under construction. The first phase of Essex Crossing is expected to be completed in 2018. Previously, Delancey Street Associates (the development consortium), announced that a 14-screen Regal Cinema and Splitsville Lanes, a bowling alley/entertainment complex, would also be part of phase 1.
UPDATE 5:15 p.m. Andrew Katz of the Prusik Group (part of the development team told Crain’s: “Planet Fitness [offers] a $10 monthly membership fee that makes it accessible to everyone, which was very important to us… There are gyms that charge $250 a month for membership, but those don’t fit the community’s needs.”
Referring to the commercial tenants with signed leases, Katz added,”These were the retailers that we promised to the community, and we have been working aggressively to fulfill our obligations to fill those spaces first.”
He said the next task is locking in a grocery store for a 30,000 sq. ft. space in the basement of 145 Clinton St. Trader Joe’s is one of the food companies considering the project.
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