Life Time Group Holdings Inc., a growing fitness center company, already refers to its Burlington location a “luxury athletic resort,” soon it will add residences to make that description more apt.
The Minnesota-based company (NYSE: LTH) is building 167 units in a building next to its multistory fitness center in a project that’s slated to open in the second quarter of next year. It’ll be only the third residential component nationally for the company’s 150-plus locations, along with two warmer-weather locations outside Las Vegas and Miami.
Burlington has been among Life Time’s busiest locations, said Eric Padget, Life Time’s director of real estate. Nordblom, the developer that owns the Life Time site and much of the surrounding mixed-use development, pitched Life Time on the potential for a residential component, and Life Time was in, Padget said.
“We thought, why not Burlington?” Padget said of the residential addition.
Life Time’s first residential projects have proven successful, Padget said. The Miami-area location filled in only about 15 months, he said, and residents — who get memberships priced into their rent — were found to frequent the gym about twice a day.
The entire company has reported a net loss for its last two fiscal years, generating $1.3 billion in revenue last year with expenses of $1.8 billion. Its share price has declined since it raised $702 million in its October 2021 IPO., recently, the company has executed several sale-leaseback deals in order to raise cash.
The Burlington location opened at a former Millipore facility in 2018, and spans 120,000 square feet. Its sprawling outdoor pool area is itself an unusual feature for Life Time with twisting water slides. The apartments are being built on a long-vacant site that once hosted a single-story commercial building.
Life Time’s new apartments will add to an area of Burlington that’s more broadly been transformed into what used to traditionally been low-slung office and industrial uses to something denser and mixed-use, from 3rd Ave to Keurig Dr Pepper’s headquarters, and major renovations at the Burlington Mall to The District Burlington. The biotech company Vericel is also planning a 125,000 square-foot lab and office building on Network Drive, at the northern end of Northwest Park, the Nordblom-managed property that includes Life Time, 3rd Ave and much of the rest of the area.
Life Time is also growing elsewhere in the Boston area. It’ll open a gym at a former Boston Sports Club at Station Landing in Medford before the end of the year, with the company shooting for November or December. The 52,000-square-foot facility will be the company’s sixth in the region, and it’ll include a fast-casual restaurant and a spa, among other features.
A number of other former Boston Sports Club fitness centers have closed in the past few years amid the chain’s financial struggles, from Salisbury, Haverhill and Peabody north of Boston to Waltham, Lexington and Canton to the west and south.
One in Newton is being transformed into a new West Suburban YMCA location. The former Lynnfield location has become a police training facility.
Life Time could continue to add more Boston-area locations, but plans are too soon to divulge, Padget said. “We love the Boston market.”
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