Indoor Rock Climbing Gym Snags 40K SF in Gowanus
By Lauren Elkies Schram July 26, 2018 4:55 pm
reprints
The Cliffs Climbing + Fitness, which has outposts in Dumbo, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Queens and Westchester, is opening a 40,000-plus-square-foot climbing, yoga, and fitness facility in Gowanus, Brooklyn, the company announced.
The new gym, at 233 Nevins Street, will include 36,000 square feet of climbing terrain, two dedicated floors of bouldering, roped climbing with 40-foot high walls, and a 4,400-square-foot outdoor terrace with additional climbing. The company signed a 25-year lease for the space, The Cliffs said in a press release. The asking rent was $50 per square foot, according to Jacob Tzfanya of Eastern Consolidated, who along with Brad Cohen and Jon Kamali (now all at CBRE (CBRE)) represented the owners, JBS Project Management and Atkins & Breskin, in the deal.
“We have been looking for space in Brooklyn for several years and felt Gowanus was the ideal location because it is becoming such a hub for alternative sports,” Mike Wolfert, the founder of The Cliffs, told Crain’s New York Business, which broke the news.
David Silberberg of Spaceworks, who represented The Cliffs, echoed Wolfert’s sentiment in a comment to Commercial Observer: “This was an exhaustive three-year search with a number of failed deals along the way. We evaluated hundreds of properties with respect to transportation access, neighborhood demographics, allowable zoning, setback requirements and height restrictions.”
As per a Cliffs press release, “The building is being constructed from the ground up and tailored specifically for rock climbing use by a partnership between JBS Project Management and Atkins & Breskin.”
The Cliffs claims the Gowanus location, with its $18 million construction tab, will be “New York City’s largest climbing gym.”
In addition to climbing, the facility will house a full-scale fitness gym, saunas, yoga, group fitness and a retail store selling climbing gear, accessories and apparel. There will also be an on-site parking garage.
The Cliffs at Harlem is scheduled to open later this year on West 125th Street and The Cliffs at Callowhill in Philadelphia will bow in 2019.
