On Wednesday March 12, on the rooftop of the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, Calif., Billy Malkovich, the CEO of Mountainside Fitness, mentioned a new, innovative concept that would be launched later this year.
He discouraged any and all questions, stating that he simply couldn’t mention what this “secret” concept was. However, his team was more than excited — exuberant might be closer to a description.
On Friday April 11, Malkovich finally let the cat out of the bag, and exposed Fit Republic, a new and truly innovative group fitness club that will launch in Old Town Scottsdale, Ariz. in June 2014.
“We started getting interested in the studio space about 18 months ago,” explained Malkovich. “Studio space meaning individual yoga studios, cycle studios, CrossFit and so on. We started looking into individual studios with the plan of moving into that space in a single modality.”
The 15,000-square-foot space would be one individual studio or club. However, in the space it would present not just one giant group exercise room, but actually five separate rooms. Unlike some studios, Fit Republic, as it’s being called, would have full amenities such as locker rooms and towel service.
Additionally, the location will be about $110 a month for unlimited classes that would range from yoga, hot yoga and cycling, to CrossFit, TRX®, barre, boxing and boot camp. “We assembled a group of about 30 people that we looked at as a focus group,” said Malkovich. “We pitched the idea to them very much like we would pitch a group of investors, and our plan going into that was that if our plan could survive this process, it probably has some legs.”
The focus group provided Malkovich and his team a lot of excitement and additional ideas to help develop a solid business model for Fit Republic. “We spent the better part of six months really concepting it,” he said. “Trying to figure out, do we need one yoga studio or two? How will CrossFit customers mix with the cycle customers? Can we introduce boxing and TRX? Really, just how will this whole thing function?”
Malkovich believed that the concept needed a “live, work, play” environment. “We looked all over Arizona for a high concentration of studios that had a ‘live, work and play’ urban feel with a lot of foot traffic,” he said. “We ended up finding the best possible location in the whole state for this in Old Town Scottsdale.”
The location is directly across the street from Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, which according to Malkovich, is the seventh most profitable mall in the U.S. The space that will house Fit Republic is inside a closed Borders bookstore. It’s a two-story space with a first floor that is mainly the entrance. Members will come in, check in at the front desk and then take an escalator up to the second floor to enter their classroom.
Fit Republic will host about 300 classes per week, allowing members to enter a class between 5 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Although Malkovich believes that the concept skews female, he also thinks that the concept has been designed perfectly for couples and people that desire more than one class offering.
Additionally, the classes such as CrossFit and boxing will help bring more attention to the space from the male population. Regardless, the sleek upscale look of Fit Republic will attempt to wow any demographic.
“The cycle studio will also have a live DJ booth,” said Malkovich. “Four or five classes a week we’ll bring in a live DJ and have him or her spin during a class. Next to that you’ll have a 3,000-square-foot multi-modality room. In that room you’ll have barre classes, TRX, boxing and high-intensity training boot camp classes.
“Next to that you’ll have a yoga studio that is about 2,000 square feet. It’s unique in that one of its walls is a glass garage door that will completely roll up and open up to a balcony. The balcony is another 500 square feet. About nine months out of the year the weather in Arizona is beautiful. So we’ll roll that glass garage door up and be able to expand the class outside, as well as teach classes outside.”
Directly in the middle of all five of the rooms will be a common area where people from all of the studios can come, which is where the name of Fit Republic was derived. In the middle of the space will be a café that will have the capacity of about 140 people, and will serve food, beverage, coffee and fresh juice.
“Every room is separately branded and has a separate feel,” said Malkovich. “For example, the heated yoga studio has a very East Indian feel. We are bringing in a gigantic wooden door that moves on a big pivot in the middle of the room from India. That room will feel very different from the CrossFit space, which is very grungy and industrial. Every room is going to have a unique feel to it.”
For customers that might spend $150 a month to go to a yoga studio, they will be able to spend less at Fit Republic and get four or more other classes. Finally, Malkovich wanted to ensure that members didn’t miss out on the great instructor experience. Therefore, they went out to all of the studios in the area and hand picked top instructors to come teach at Fit Republic.
No, Fit Republic doesn’t follow the same developmental patterns as Mountainside Fitness. But, according to Malkovich, they didn’t want it to. This concept has been designed for a whole new fitness individual that will change the way people use a studio.
By Tyler Montgomery
