The rapidly developing Columbia Pike corridor is finally getting a commercial gym.
An outpost of the World Gym franchise will be opening next month at 1058 South Walter Reed Drive, on the ground floor of the Halstead apartment building.
The 11,000 square foot facility will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“The neighborhood has been waiting for a gym forever,” said Connie Pappas, the wife of one of the gym’s co-owners, who was manning the gym’s next door sales office today as a steady stream of curious potential patrons walked through the door armed with questions about equipment and pricing.
Currently, the closest comparable gyms for Pike residents are the Bally Total Fitness on Pentagon Row or the Gold’s Gym on South Glebe Road. There’s also a large membership-based fitness center in the Thomas Jefferson Community Center at 3501 2nd Street South.
World Gym may not be the only gym in the area for much longer, however. There are rumors that an XSport Fitness club is coming to the Siena Park apartment building at 2301 Columbia Pike in mid-2011. (Update at 4:30 p.m. — Staff at Siena Park say the rumors are true.)
Pappas says the World Gym’s main selling points are the modern equipment and friendly staff. Certainly the hours can’t hurt, either.
The gym is still under construction, but Pappas says she expects it to open the week of Jan. 11. The parking arrangement for gym customers is still being worked out, but Pappas hopes to reach a parking validation deal with the manager of the Halstead’s underground parking garage.
A new kind of fitness center will be opening its doors on Saturday. The Clarendon Fitness Collective is “a total change from the mega gyms in the area,” says spokesperson Sandra Rodriguez.