Planet Fitness to fill vacant anchor space in Rockland Plaza
Courtesy/ Planet Fitness
Planet Fitness, whose Maine locations include this one in Falmouth, will head next to Rockland, where it will take over 115,000 square feet formerly occupied by J.C.Penney.
Planet Fitness, the New Hampshire-based gym chain that peddles itself as a low-budget alternative with a "judgment-free zone" for exercise newbies, will soon add a new Maine location.
Rockland is next on the list for Planet Fitness franchisee Mike Cleary, managing partner of Granite Coast Properties LLC in Portsmouth, N.H., he hold Mainebiz this week.
It will have a significant presence in Rockland, where it has leased 11,500 square feet of retail space. The lease was brokered by Charlie Craig, from NAI The Dunham Group, as reported by the Mainebiz Real Estate Insider.
The space was formerly part of a J.C.Penney, in the Rockland Plaza, at 75 Maverick St. The store has been vacant since July 2017, Village Soup reported. The franchisee's other locations are in Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth and Augusta.
“We think Rockland’s a great community for our product, and we think it’s underserved in the marketplace,” said Cleary, who said he owns the Planet Fitness franchise rights for parts of Maine. “The community hasn’t had the opportunity to enjoy a product like this.”
Hampton, N.H.-based Planet Fitness (NYSE: PLNT) has 1,700 locations in North America and revenue last year of $530.7 million, up from $429.9 million in 2017. It claims to have more than 12.5 million members at its gyms, which are in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
A Planet Fitness spokeswoman told Mainebiz that there are currently 10 open Maine locations, and that the average club employs between 10 and 15 full- and part-time employees.
In Rockland, the club will employ 15 people. It will start with a smaller number in a pre-sale office that will sell memberships starting six weeks before opening.
Cleary said that while he and his team had looked at other sites in Rockland and in Thomaston, they’re happy with the Rockland site.
The company signed the lease a couple of weeks ago and aims to open the Rockland location in late summer after completely renovating the interior of the building, which dates to the 1960s.
“It’s going to be spectacular,” said Cleary, adding that it when it’s finished it will look a lot like its location in Falmouth, which opened a year and a half ago.
Bids are currently coming in for the fit-up, Cleary said, adding that for the most part general contractors and subcontractors would all be local.
He expects to set a firm opening date after June 1, when Granite Coast Properties is scheduled to take possession of the property.
Besides being an easy drive from Thomaston and Camden, Cleary said other pluses are ample parking and proximity to a Hannaford.
“We love tenanting with grocery stores, because it’s a daily routine. A lot of people go to the grocery store, so this makes it super easy to get your exercise.”
Cleary's Planet Fitness sites employ 74 people in Maine, and he says it’s not been hard finding local talent “because Planet Fitness is a fun environment to work in.”
He said the plan is to bring on new staff for Rockland a couple of months before opening so they can get experience at existing stores.
For him personally, he said it’s rewarding to see so many first-time gym users exercising and starting to turn their lives around.
“It’s really an amazing by-product of this business that I wasn’t anticipating when I bought it,” he said.
Asked about the Planet Fitness business model, Cleary said, “The founders of the brand figured out a long time ago that all the fitness facilities were competing for the 15% of the population that uses gyms on a regular basis. Quite brilliantly, they decided, why fight over the 15 when we can get the other 85.”
He said members range in age from 18 to octogenarians, and they tend to be mostly women.
“Our product represents a great value at $10 a month,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re coming every day or only a few times a month, it’s such a great value.”
After Rockland, “we’ve got our eye on a number of other locations” in Maine, Cleary said. “We’re hoping to add another store this fall and a couple more next year
Editor's note: This story was updated on May 9 to clarify the amount of square feet being leased and give the name of the broker.
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