Fitness industry exercising greater clout in office market

Boutique gyms and fitness studios are expanding at a rapid clip in New York City, and with their growth comes a need for more office space, the New York Times reported.

Tough Mudder – which organizes extreme obstacle courses with names such as the “Dirty Ballerina – recently signed a seven-year, 35,000-square-foot lease at MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn, and has the option to take an additional full floor in the next few years for a total of 70,000 square feet. It will move there in November from its current 20,000-square-foot space spread across eight smaller offices in Dumbo.

Meanwhile, Flywheel, a burgeoning chain of boutique cycling gyms, will relocate from its 1,500-square-foot offices in the Flatiron district to a 4,000-square-foot space at 150 Amsterdam Avenue later this month.

And SoulCycle – Flywheel’s competitor in the boutique cycling race – recently moved from its tiny Tribeca studio to a 20,000-square-foot office in the West Village on Leroy Street.

“It is definitely a far cry from the $169 Ikea table we used to sit around,” Elizabeth Cutler, SoulCycle’s founder, told the Times. [NYT]  – Hiten Samtani