High-end gyms are no longer just places to sweat it out.

The most exclusive ones offer not only state-of-the-art equipment, exercise classes and spacious locker rooms with cold eucalyptus-scented towels and fancy soaps but also “third places,” locations outside home and work where people can mingle and socialize. That means gyms are now also recreational centers and event spaces, salons and spas, hotels and workspaces. And they’re child care facilities.

At Chelsea Piers in New York, the sports and entertainment complex along the Hudson River, members can get work done before, in between or after workouts at the gym’s lounge and coworking space, which opens up to a 44-foot ceiling and waterfront view. The gym also hosts events, such as author talks and creative classes and workshops, for members.

At Life Time, a gym chain headquartered in Chanhassen that calls its branches a “country club” version of a health club, members can drop off their child before a workout for a fee and can get a private office or a dedicated Herman Miller desk at locations with coworking space, called Life Time Work.

People working near pickleball courts on the first floor at Life Time, a luxury gym at Pennsylvania Plaza in Midtown, New York, Thursday, June 12, 2024. High-end gyms, many of which used to be an amenity, are now the star attraction, offering hotel rooms and workspaces as part of their appeal. They’ve also gotten a lot bigger. (Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times)

A Life Time Work membership, available at their St. Louis Park, Edina and downtown Minneapolis locations in the Twin Cities, includes gym access and will cost you a couple of hundred dollars to thousands per month, depending on what kind of workspace you want and the location.

Gyms, many of which used to be an amenity attached to a hotel or an office building, have now become the star attraction, offering hotel rooms and workspaces as part of their appeal. These kinds of amenities require a lot of space — and a shaky commercial real estate sector with high vacancies has opened up opportunities for big gyms.

Gym facilities have a history of occupying unused properties and spaces. They can extend into spaces not traditionally desirable in the real estate world, using windowless rooms below street level as locker rooms or spaces for group exercise classes. Chelsea Piers took advantage of unused piers on the west side of Manhattan to build its 150,000-square-feet flagship complex in 1995, equipped with a six-lane, 75-foot pool; a rock wall; and three basketball courts.

Life Time Work

Life Time started in Minnesota in 1992 and now has 1.4 million paying members and over 200 locations across the country, mostly in the suburbs. It took over 54,000 square feet at its Penn 1 location in midtown Manhattan, more than enough space for its seven pickleball courts and cafelike seating area and bar, where members can have beers and other beverages on tap and watch one another play. Its other New York locations average about 41,000 square feet. Its first Life Time Work in New York is coming next year to the Brooklyn Tower, which will also offer a 110,000-square-foot space to sweat it out.

The pricing for the upcoming New York space has not yet been determined, but the Life Time Work in downtown Minneapolis charges $249 for a lounge membership, $500 for a desk and $1,278 for a private office. A Chelsea Piers membership starts at $220 per month in New York; the company declined to share its membership numbers.

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Long leases, smaller staff

Life Time and Chelsea Piers can get these big spaces in large part because they sign leases lasting 20 to 25 years, with options to extend at the end of their agreement term. Most commercial leases in New York are five to 15 years, and office leases can be as long as 10 years.

“When you start to see these really long lease terms or ones with extension options built into it, it’s because the developer pays some big fixed costs upfront,” said Cameron LaPoint, an assistant professor of finance at Yale School of Management. “They’re trying to mold the property in a bespoke way to the tenant.”

Life Time’s CEO, Bahram Akradi, said the company’s strategy was to “try to control 40, 50 years” in its existing spaces.

To make their vision work, Life Time reduced its corporate office staff during the pandemic and eliminated sales positions and member promotions, allowing the clubs’ amenities to speak for themselves, Akradi said.

Locker room on the third floor at Life Time, a luxury gym at Pennsylvania Plaza in Midtown, New York, Thursday, June 12, 2024. High-end gyms, many of which used to be an amenity, are now the star attraction, offering hotel rooms and workspaces as part of their appeal. They’ve also gotten a lot bigger. (Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times)

Life Time and other high-end gyms have rebounded after hard times during the pandemic when membership rates plummeted and 25% of all health clubs and studios closed in 2021, according to industry group National Health & Fitness Alliance.

Whether developers will continue spending big on gyms, however, is hard to predict, LaPoint said, especially with leases extending decades into the future. One area of concern is stubborn inflation, said Chris Hudgins, a research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. He pointed to high membership fees as potential pain points.

But for Akradi, business was going so well that “when you look at our 2024 and 2025 numbers,” referring to membership rates and sales from in-gym purchases, it would seem the pandemic “never happened.”

“We reinvented the business during that time, and it is substantially better than it used to be,” he said.

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The Saints continued to make history on Sunday at CHS Field, only this time it was a record they could have done without.

After extending their winning streak to a franchise-best 11 games on Saturday, the Saints set a team mark for runs allowed in a game in a 20-9 loss to the Toledo Mud Hens.

“They always end funny,” Saints manager Toby Gardenhire said of the winning streak. “You never know how it is going to go. Sometimes you get walked off, sometimes you give up a
hundred runs. We gave up a hundred.”

Saints starting pitcher Louie Varland had a miserable afternoon, allowing 12 runs — 11 earned — in 2 1/3 innings. The Mud Hens touched him up for 11 hits, including five home runs.

After Varland gave up the three runs in the first inning on a pair of home runs, he was given a reprieve when the Saints scored five times in their half of the inning. But Varland gave up two more home runs in the Mud Hens’ five-run second.

Varland declined to speak with reporters after the game.

“I got nothing for you guys today,” he said as he left the clubhouse. “Too emotional.”

Gardenhire wasn’t surprised.

“Any time you have a start like that — for a guy like Louie, who has been so good — you’re going to be emotional,” Gardenhire said. “It’s not easy for these guys. This is their job, this is what they live to do.

“You’re only pitching once a week, and when you go out there and have a tough one like this, it’s going to be tough.”

Saints pitching coach Pete Larson said Varland’s location of his pitches was not an issue.

“He threw strikes, he got ahead of guys,” Larson said. “They got the better end of it today. They came out swinging and they didn’t really miss.”

Added Gardenhire: “Everybody’s due for a tough one once in a while. They were on just about everything he threw. We were hoping he could figure it out for a couple innings and end on a high note, but it just didn’t happen.”

Varland made his first start since having two solid outings with the Twins, which made Sunday’s performance all the more surprising.

“It was awesome to see him have success up there,” Larson said. “He needed that after the little bit of a rough start he had at the beginning of the year. And everything he’s been working on here, he threw up there, and it was well executed.

“So we’ll adjust on the game plan and move forward next week.”

The Mud Hens did most of their damage in the first four innings, scoring three in the first, five in the second, four in the third and seven in the fourth. They put a quick end to any thoughts the Saints had of sweeping a second straight six-game series.

But the Saints left for their last road trip eager to string some wins together, and they likely exceeded their own expectations by winning 11 in a row.

“We got some guys healthy, we got some guys back,” Gardenhire said. “And we’ve got some guys swinging the bat well. It was fun. You don’t get many streaks where you win 11 games in a row.

“But we were going on all cylinders for a long time — pretty much the whole road trip in Louisville and then the whole homestand until today. Everything was great. Hopefully, one game
like this won’t be a complete setback.”

Briefly

Burnsville native Aaron Rozek, just called up from Double-A Wichita, replaced Varland and surrendered six runs in 1 1/3 innings of work. … Second baseman Edouard Julien, who has struggled offensively since being sent down by the Twins, reached based five times, with three walks, a double and a single.

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OAKLAND, Calif. — Rocco Baldelli was hesitant to reveal too many of the details before the game, but, he said, Pablo López had a meaningful week in between starts working on a couple of mechanical tweaks.

“I think he had some real pointed ideas about what he was trying to accomplish in between his outings,” Baldelli said before the game.

Mission accomplished.

López, who entered the day with a 9.69 ERA in the month of June, was simply spectacular on Sunday. The starter retired the first 17 batters of the game before allowing a hit, dominating the Oakland Athletics in the Twins’ 3-0 win in the series finale at the Oakland Coliseum.

With the way he was throwing, it looked as if López had a serious chance to write his name into the history books. But with two outs in the sixth inning, after striking out the first two batters of the inning, Lawrence Butler lined a single to right, disrupting López’s bid for perfection.

He allowed just two hits in his eight-inning effort and struck out 14 batters, matching his career high. In the process, he fanned every single Athletics (29-51) batter.

With his pitch count at 102, López did not get the chance to finish off the game, as Bailey Ober did a day before. But eight innings of sheer dominance worked just fine for the Twins (43-35).

López pitched with a lead for much of the day after Byron Buxton hit his fifth home run of the season in the second inning off lefty Hogan Harris.

Harris kept the Twins mostly quiet for much of the game before running into trouble in the seventh. Carlos Santana and Willi Castro started the inning with back-to-back singles before Buxton brought home the team’s second run of the game with a double.

The Twins scored another run on Kyle Farmer’s fielder’s choice, and those three runs were more than enough offensive support for López and Griffin Jax, who completed the shutout with a scoreless ninth for his seventh save.

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OAKLAND, Calif. — In retrospect, Joe Ryan  — who hails from nearby Marin County — is very happy that that he pushed to make a start at the Oakland Coliseum last year. It would be his first and last opportunity to pitch at the old ballpark, which the Athletics will vacate after this season.

“I definitely would have been frustrated if I’d never gotten that,” Ryan said. “I’m really happy that I did.”

Following this season, the Athletics will say goodbye to their long-time home — they have played at the facility since 1968 — and head northeast to Sacramento, where they are expected to play at least the next three seasons. After that, they plan to relocate to Las Vegas.

That meant this weekend marked the Twins’ final chance to say goodbye to the park.

“I don’t know if that’s really hit me, but I definitely feel like it’s kind of sad,” Bay Area native Trevor Larnach said. “I’m hearing the next three years are in Sacramento and I feel for the players, I think, honestly, cause I’ve played over there, too. It’s not going to be the same at all.”

The Athletics decision to relocate came after years of sagging attendance in the aging facility and attempts to reach a deal to stay in the city.

Though Ryan grew up cheering for the San Francisco Giants, he vividly remembers coming to a game as a child, sitting in the third deck and watching the Athletics take on Derek Jeter and the Yankees. In high school, he came to watch his future Twins’ teammate, Sonny Gray, start for the Athletics.

“Tickets were so cheap. So you could sit — I think we sat right next to the dugout,” Ryan said. “It was sick. Always fun. So, it’ll definitely be sad to not come back.”

Larnach, who is from Walnut Creek, was happy to start and hit third on Friday night, in his first major league game in the Bay Area. He returned to Oakland with the Twins in 2022 but was on the injured list, so he didn’t play in that series.

Though he grew up watching Barry Bonds and the Giants, he remembers coming to some games as a kid and watching former Athletics third baseman Eric Chavez.

“I would have loved to have seen this place get packed because I feel like it could be loud, crazy, but it’s been a while,” Larnach said.

It sure has.

And that part of the reason why on Sunday, the Twins said their last farewells to the old ballpark.

“This place is different, but I would say this place does have a soul,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I don’t know if I would say that about every single ballpark that I step into, but I think I can say it about the Coliseum. I’ll miss the Coliseum. I’ll miss all the great stuff and the not-so-great stuff. I’ll miss all of it.”

Briefly

The Twins will have Monday off before taking on the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix. Ryan, Simeon Woods Richardson and Chris Paddack are lined up to start in that series. … Royce Lewis served as the Twins’ designated hitter on consecutive days in Oakland rather than taking the field because he was under the weather, Baldelli said. … The beginning of the game on Sunday was slightly delayed as the Athletics honored their 1974 World Series winning team.

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