It’s a symbiotic relationship! Fitness concepts are healthy for shopping centers and shopping centers benefit from fitness users as tenants. The old stigma that fitness tenants absorb too much parking and the fact that many major anchors excluded their use in reciprocal easement agreements has changed over time and is not longer the norm. In many instances, shopping centers benefit by way of having a fitness concept at their centers as these uses drive traffic and create retail synergies of which adjacent neighboring retail tenants benefit from. The number of fitness centers grew in shopping centers by 24% between 2010 to 2019, according to the JLL report titled “Fitness Invigorates Shopping Centers”.
It’s cool to be healthy and it’s cool for shopping center landlords to incorporate fitness-based tenants at their shopping centers and into their tenant lineups. Fitness concepts remain to be in popular demand from the Orange Theory’s of the world to Soul Cycle and Pure Barre, among many others. Consumers are willing to invest more now into their health and wellness than ever before! Boutique fitness brands and budget gyms have noticed the largest growth in the health fitness sector, benefiting neighborhood and community styled shopping centers the most. Based on the JLL report, 47% of consumers are motivated to visit a shopping center if it has a fitness or wellness tenant.
Fitness tenants with monthly membership subscriptions create built in reoccurring foot traffic to the brick and mortar properties of which they occupy space ultimately benefiting the adjacent tenants at the shopping center. This built in foot traffic creates strong synergies for the shopping center and supports neighboring tenants, helping to drive sales resulting in a direct effect to their bottom lines.
About The Author: Jeff Dervech
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