Planet Fitness to open near downtown Detroit later this summer

Lina Portman7 days ago

0 2 minutes read

A new Planet Fitness is expected to open in Detroit in August, near downtown.

The gym will be housed in an existing building at 1200 Fort St., between downtown and the George W. Young Post Office. The approximately 17,000-square-foot building previously housed a Salvation Army store and donation center.

It will be the 65th Planet Fitness in the state — and the third in Detroit — for Northville-based Epic Fitness Group, which is the largest Planet Fitness franchise group in Michigan and has never closed a location.

In a phone interview Friday, Epic Fitness Group CEO and co-owner Bryan Rief said he expects the majority of the new gym’s members to be area residents. Others could be commuters who work downtown and use a Planet Fitness “black card” that allows them to access any Planet Fitness location.

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“We had been actively looking for locations in the central business district for years, and this one fit our criteria perfectly,” Rief said. “We looked in Corktown…and there was nothing available. So when we found out this old Salvation Army building was available, we contacted the owner and one thing led to another. »

The franchise group had planned to open a Planet Fitness in 2018 near downtown at 1400 Woodbridge St., but scrapped that plan due to a lease disagreement. The group's two existing Detroit locations are at the Gateway Marketplace on 8 Mile and the Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center near New Center.

A basic single-location membership at the new Detroit location will cost $15 per month and parking will be free. The entire Planet Fitness gym chain recently raised that entry-level price by $10, where it had been for more than two decades.

The price of a Black Card subscription with universal access is $24.99 per month.

“We’ve been offering a $10 membership for over 20 years and we finally had to do something about it,” Rief said. “Obviously, inflation has taken its toll and I think we were one of the last companies that hesitated to raise our prices, but it was about time. Fifteen dollars is still very affordable.”

Rief said the metro Detroit gym and fitness studio industry continues to rebound from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far, Rief said his gyms have not seen any significant impact on their businesses due to the popularity of new injectable weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, which may make it easier for some people to lose weight. without the need to go to the gym.

“Our business is growing well year-over-year, so we are very pleased with our growth,” Rief said.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or [email protected]. Follow him on @jcreindl

Lina Portman

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