The fitness scene is scaling up in Los Angeles, where a variety of gym operators are filling retail gaps in new malls, apartment complexes and other properties.
Companies including Equinox, the operator of high-end fitness clubs across the country, and Royal Personal Training, a health club that focuses on private training sessions, have inked some of the largest retail leases this year in greater Los Angeles as fitness centers bounce back from their pandemic-era doldrums.
Equinox plans to occupy a 30,000-square-foot retail space on the ground floor of an apartment building under construction in Santa Monica, while Royal Personal Training is filling roughly half of a new, 60,000-square-foot mixed-use building in West Hollywood. And Gold's Gym recently had a soft opening for its ground-level space spanning 33,000 square feet at the Beverly Center in Beverly Hills.
The deals are notably larger than the typical lease size of 5,000 square feet for gym operators in Los Angeles, brokers tell CoStar News. The expansions signal that fitness concepts are back in growth mode locally and nationally after the pandemic restricted some business operations, keeping consumers out of enclosed spaces.
Equinox has posted higher revenue in recent years and has ramped up expansion plans to meet that growing demand. Its Los Angeles deal comes a few months after it signed a similarly sized lease in Florida. Fitness class operator Barry's Bootcamp, meanwhile, plans to open 20 studios annually over the next several years, with a goal of owning U.S. outposts and franchising international ones.
Landlords are turning to fitness concepts to help anchor new developments as traditional tenants remain cautious. Los Angeles retailers gave back more than 2 million square feet of space in the past year, according to CoStar data.
High-end to no-frills
Royal Personal Training is expanding from a 7,000-square-foot space in Beverly Hills to developer Faring's newly built 639 N. La Peer Drive in West Hollywood.
Competition is fierce for large, new retail spaces with adequate parking, according to tenant broker Brandon Cohan, founder at Beverly Hills-based Brandon Cohan Real Estate. He represented the 15-year-old health and wellness club in the West Hollywood deal.
Royal Personal Training is known locally for a high-end clientele of celebrities and social media influencers who want to work out in a discreet environment. One of the perks of the building that appealed to the firm is valet parking.
“There were others who wanted the space," Cohan told CoStar News. "This was not an easy deal. It all came together at the last minute.”
Equinox is slated to open its newest Los Angeles outpost this year at Related's 700 Broadway mixed-use center in Santa Monica. The project will include 196 apartments with luxury concierge service.
Gold's Gym opened its Beverly Center location roughly a year after it opened a 35,000-square-foot branch in Long Beach at The Pike Outlets.
No-frills gym operator Planet Fitness is pursuing smaller, opportunistic sites in suburbs ranging from Palmdale to Santa Clarita. The company is among retailers backfilling vacant Rite Aid boxes averaging 15,000 square feet across the region, according to Avison Young Principal Christopher Maling, who tracks retail deals across the market.
“Those sites are well-parked and easy to convert,” Maling told CoStar News. “It’s a very quick turn, which makes the economics attractive.”
Across the nation, fitness memberships hit a record 77 million in 2024, up from 72.9 million the prior year, according to the Health & Fitness Association. Gym visits climbed 3.5% in the first half of 2025 from the year-earlier period.
For the record
Carine Mamann and Kazuko Morgan of Cushman Wakefield represented Faring in the Royal Personal Training lease.