About 20 minutes from Hartford, Connecticut, in the small suburb of South Windsor, there's a rapidly growing length of businesses along Cedar Avenue and Buckland Road.
Within walking distance, there's a Lowe's, a Trader Joe's, a strip mall called the Shops at Evergreen Walk, a Cold Stone Creamery and other retailers. The area has grown so popular that, last year, one of the nation's most well-known fitness companies decided it wanted a piece of the action.
Club Studio bought a large facility at 100 Cedar Ave. and spent months transforming the space into a high-end fitness center. Club Studio's parent company is Fitness International, which also owns LA Fitness.
People who watch commercial real estate in the Hartford area said Club Studio's presence has generated new jobs, given residents another option for exercising and may attract other companies to the Cedar/Buckland corridor. The area already has a Max Fitness and an Orangetheory Fitness. Club Studio's arrival further shows that South Windsor is becoming a retail hub for the greater Hartford area, they said.
Club Studio's acquisition of 100 Cedar was so key that it earned a 2026 CoStar Impact Award, as selected by an independent panel of local industry professionals.
LA Fitness has been around since the 1980s, but the company announced the Club Studio brand in 2022 as a direct competitor to Equinox and Life Time. The South Windsor location is one of only 18 Club Studios nationwide. Fitness International is opening new locations in Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio, and Dallas, Texas.
About the project: Club Studio, the high-end version of LA Fitness, purchased the 44,000-square-foot facility. The gym's presence is expected to increase foot traffic in the area along Cedar Avenue and Buckland Road that already has major retailers, including Costco and Whole Foods. South Windsor is about 12 miles north of Hartford.
Built in 2005, the property at 100 Cedar Ave. has two stories and a 182-space parking lot. The lot was formerly home to a Panera Bread.
The property sold for $13.7 million in April 2025, according to CoStar data. Club Studio will occupy the space until 2040.
What the judges said: The Club Studio move "reflects marketing efforts to reposition a unique property, as opposed to a market segment with a lot of demand," said John Galvin, owner of Galvin Appraisal.
"I selected the Club Studio acquisition because it represents a transformative repositioning of the asset and aligns with broader shifts in the retail market toward experiential, service-driven uses," said Tim Bray, a broker at Seaport Commercial. "The transaction introduces a high-end wellness concept with a long-term, absolute triple-net lease, bringing new jobs, increased traffic and sustained economic activity to one of the region’s fastest-growing commercial corridors. Unlike a stabilized industrial investment, this acquisition involves significant redevelopment, tenant-driven ownership and the creation of a destination-oriented use alongside major anchors like Costco and Whole Foods. It reflects innovation in both real estate strategy and tenant composition, establishes a valuation benchmark for repositioned fitness assets and reinforces South Windsor’s role as a premier lifestyle and retail hub in the Hartford market."
They made it happen: Mark Thiel and Jake Bordelon, senior managing directors at Marcus & Millichap, were the listing brokers on the deal.
CoStar Market Manager Coleman Applegate contributed.