REAL ESTATE : 2 New Health Clubs to Fight It Out in Close Quarters Next Year in Irvine
It’ll be the battle of the health clubs next year in Irvine when the Irvine Sporting Club and the Sports Club/Irvine open across the San Diego Freeway from each other.
The Koll Co., a Newport Beach developer, had been looking for a health club for the part of its $1-billion Koll Center Irvine north of the freeway. Koll said it recently signed an agreement with Sports Connection, operator of nine clubs in the Los Angeles area, to develop the Sports Club/Irvine on a site attached to a parking garage at its huge office, hotel and retail complex.
The other club will be on the south side of the freeway at a Birtcher Co. office project called Lakeshore Towers. Sporting Clubs of America recently submitted plans to Irvine city officials for a free-standing building designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa.
Sporting Clubs is part of Naiman Co., a San Diego developer which owns and operates two health clubs in Denver and one each in Washington, Atlanta and Montreal. The company just announced plans for two more clubs, in Philadelphia and Chicago.
The 90,000-square-foot Sporting Clubs facility will have dance and aerobic studios, Nautilus equipment, racquetball courts, a basketball gym and indoor running track, spa, cafe and lounge. It will definitely be pricey, appealing to upscale fitness freaks, said a spokesman for the project. The club is scheduled to open late next year.
About the middle of next year is the scheduled opening for the Koll Center health club, which will be a 100,000-square-foot facility described as an “urban country club.” The Sports Connection also runs the trendy Sports Club/LA in West Los Angeles. The Irvine club will include an aerobics room, weight-training rooms, basketball and racquetball courts, a pool, Jacuzzi, dining room, bar, cafe and pro shop and is likely to be on the expensive side.
Both clubs are expected to be handy marketing tools in selling their respective office complexes to tenants.
