Urban Oasis: Life Time
I am convinced that Life Time is taking over the world.
I’d paid little mind to the self-described “wellness pioneer reshaping the way consumers approach their health by integrating where we move, work and live—digitally and physically”—until I stayed in one of their Life Time Living properties in Florida a few years ago and wrote about it here. Now I see Life Time everywhere, especially in my home town of New York City, where they just opened their ninth location, near Penn Station: a gleaming oasis of all things healthy, fit and well in the pinnacle of urban grit.
I decided it was time to learn more about the brand’s process of global domination—er, growth and expansion, as it marks nearly 180 Life Time athletic resort destinations in the United States and Canada. Mark Huckaby, the brand’s Business Development Manager of Corporate Partnerships and guru of all things Life Time, shared more with me.
How many new Life Time properties have opened since Dec 2021, when we last chatted? We’ve opened more than 20 new Life Time properties since December 2021, expanding our presence in key urban and suburban areas, ranging from New York City and Chicago to Denver and Beaverton, Oregon.
What are some highlights of these? Any favorites? In November 2023 we opened Life Time Living Burlington in the Boston area. We partnered with Nordblom Company to complete the 13-acre community – a 167-unit residential complex, located next to our Burlington athletic county club. As you just mentioned, Life Time has grown significantly in New York City since we last chatted. A recent highlight is the opening of Life Time PENN 1, which has seven street-level pickleball courts—the most in New York City. We recently partnered with tennis legend Andre Agassi and he attended our grand opening event. Agassi was named inaugural chair of the Life Time Pickleball and Tennis Board to guide future growth in those programs.
Who knew Pickleball would be a thing! How has the brand evolved in the last 2-3 years? What lessons have been learned? We are actually the largest owner and operator of indoor pickleball courts in the United States. Our Founder and CEO Bahram Akradi had the vision for us to become the largest provider in 2021. We now have more than 630 permanent pickleball courts and hundreds more on the way.
Our personal training programming also continues to evolve in order to best support our members. Last fall, we launched Dynamic Stretch: one-on-one, personalized and assisted stretching services delivered by our team of Dynamic Personal Trainers. We’ve also been growing dedicated recovery spaces in our athletic country clubs. We’re seeing more of our members seeing the importance of recovery after their workouts to keep them at their best.
Life Time Work, our coworking spaces, has grown to 15 locations. We’ve also been opening Life Time Work Lounge spaces in select Life Time athletic country clubs. These are new spaces in our clubs for members to work before or after their workouts. We’ve found people are seeking different places to get work done with more people on hybrid schedules.
Last fall we launched MIORA, our longevity and performance program located at our Target Center, Minneapolis, club. The program targets longevity, performance, weight loss, or a combination of all three, in order to help people live longer and healthier by positively affecting the aging process.
Why do you think Life Time is conquering the US in this way—what about the brand is really speaking to people in the here and now? Our spaces address a growing desire for holistic wellness and balanced living. In today’s fast-paced and stressed world, people are looking for places that support their physical, mental, and social well-being. People realize that living a healthy and happy life goes well beyond physical fitness. We have the best spaces for you to get a workout in, but we also offer communities through our group training, classes, pickleball, and ARORA program for members 55 and older. These allow you to build your physical health, while making connections with others.
Surely this desire for greater connections, period, was impacted by the pandemic, yes?
I can’t emphasize enough just how much Life Time transformed because of Covid. While it was devastating to our business, it also helped us to evolve and elevate to a place our founder Bahram Akradi had always envisioned: an Athletic Country Club. And business is very, very strong. These days, our clubs have more monthly visits by members than ever before, they’re giving us the highest satisfaction scores and we’re engaging them in ways well beyond fitness. For example, many clubs are hosting “bougee parties” on a Saturday night where members are trading workout clothes for cocktail attire, families are spending more time together because of our offerings for kids and mom and dad, and we are helping to revitalize shopping centers, office centers and other places. It’s been tremendous to be a part of.
