It has a seating capacity of 3,900 and is the home to the third winning high school program in the state.
Quincy’s Blue Devil Gym and Moline’s Wharton Field House are among the 13 gyms featured in the full-color spread now on sale.īlue Devil Gym debuted as the home of the Quincy High School boys basketball team with a 54-48 victory over Keokuk, Iowa, on Dec.
Two venerable high school basketball gyms in Illinois and arguably the two most historic within the Western Big 6 Conference are being featured in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s 2023 Unique Gyms of Illinois calendar. The chain's gross revenue last year was $500 million.The middle of December brings holiday gift ideas, All-American game goals and memories of a game played more than 30 years ago … Nationally, Planet Fitness has 435 centers, having added 90 gyms in 2010. Grondahl said critics simply don't understand Planet Fitness' market target: the average person seeking regular exercise, and not the body sculptors looking to "lift things up and put them down," as the company's popular ad slogan goes. Likewise, the culture's not for everyone. Planet Fitness ultimately dumped its World Gym assets at a $1 million loss. For example, the company's 2008 purchase of the World Gym chain turned out to be a "big mistake," Grondahl said. Other recent openings have targeted the troubled Porter Square Galleria in Somerville and a former South Shore Buick car dealership in Quincy Center.īut not everything has worked out for Planet Fitness since it began its aggressive expansion. "We approached (the landlord) earlier and they initially wanted some number that was ultimately double what we ended up paying," said Brian Kablik, who runs seven Planet Fitness franchises in Massachusetts. Though officials won't reveal what it is paying for the 15,500-square-foot space at the Dedham strip mall, they confirmed it's at a significantly reduced price compared to pre-recession levels. "There's been a slight shift in attitude," said Jeremy Grossman, a principal at CB Richard Ellis/Grossman Retail Advisors who has worked with a Planet Fitness franchisee in securing space at the Dedham Plaza. Many of those landlords would move mountains to fill empty spaces. Today, strip-mall owners in particular are training their sights on gym tenants such as Planet Fitness. But that was before they felt the weight of the real estate market's fall. "We're looking at possibly thousands of locations across the country," said Michael Grondahl, a co-founder of Planet Fitness.įor decades, commercial landlords frowned upon leasing space to fitness centers within shopping or strip malls, arguing gyms used up too many valuable parking spaces and contributed too little to funneling customers to surrounding shops. That number is expected to double within a few years, making the chain one of the few retailers to expand, let alone retain its existing space, since the economy's ugly turn.Īs such, the company flexes considerable clout when it comes to scoping out and negotiating terms for potential locations. In Massachusetts alone, 19 Planet Fitness franchises have opened since 2008, bringing its local store count to 45 as of this week. To be sure, the Dover, N.H.-based fitness-center chain – renowned for its cut-rate membership prices and an advertising blitz poking fun at hard-core body builders – has seen explosive growth in recent years. Planet Fitness is expanding faster than an angry Hulk, pumping out a dizzying number of its no-frills gym franchises in the Bay State and nationally as it tests the waters for a potential public stock offering.
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