JUST IN: Life Time Gym Coming to The Crossing Clarendon

(Updated at 2:10 p.m. on 8/3/21) Upscale health club chain Life Time is opening a huge new fitness center at The Crossing Clarendon, a stretch of retail formerly known as Market Common Clarendon.

Life Time’s opening is currently expected to happen in the first few months of 2023, said Andrew Kabat of Regency Centers, which owns the multi-block development, which mixes retail, residential and office space.

“It’s really such an exciting, well-rounded lifestyle offering that I think will be a massive statement for this community,” Kabat said. “Being very high-end and luxury focused, it fits in well with the Clarendon community.”

The gym will occupy 113,000 square feet of space at 1440 N. Edgewood Street, where, up until recently, an Equinox gym was expected to move in. In February, Regency Centers sued Equinox, alleging breach of contract.

The Crossing has undergone a recent renovation and rebranding and, starting with Life Time, Regency Centers is on the cusp of announcing several other new retail tenants.

The new gym will take up 5,000 square feet on the ground floor as well as the entire second, third and fourth floors, compared to the nearly 30,000 square feet of space Equinox was set to occupy. Life Time will offer workout spaces, a spa, a co-working space and room for group fitness classes, as well as a food and beverage component and places to drop off kids.

“It’s just that well-thought out,” said Kabat, who helped to land the leasing deal with the company. “Their brand, the way they’ve really integrated themselves into the community — they’re a lifestyle brand. They’ll offer a lot of different amenities.”

Unlike most other Life Time locations, the Clarendon outpost is in more of an urban setting, spanning multiple stories, rather than occupying a freestanding facility in a suburban area, he said. The fitness center will also be “the catalyst” for other exciting announcements, Kabat said.

The building that Life Time will occupy was an vacant office space when Regency Centers acquired it in 2016. It was gutted and a fourth floor was added, and construction was completed last summer. Between Life Time and Tatte Bakery and Cafe, which is also moving in on the ground floor and is expected to open in early September, the building will be 93% leased.

In total, the building has eight retail spaces on the ground floor: Tatte and Life Time are the only two publicly-announced tenants at this time, but Regency Centers is getting ready to announce five more, Kabat said. Each of these deals was agreed to during the pandemic.

“Once we add those other five users, we’ll be at 98-99% leased,” he said. “We feel good that we’ll be 100% leased by end of the year.”

Among the building’s ground floor spaces is the former location of beloved live music venue Iota Club and Cafe, which closed in 2017.

The leasing announcements are in addition to other changes coming to The Crossing Clarendon, including a new pedestrian plaza near Barnes and Noble. Recently, custom framing store Framebridge opened at The Crossing, along Clarendon Blvd.