Beltline Hits Urban Body Fitness Below The Belt
Urban Body Fitness was forced to plan for relocation when the Atlanta Beltline project reclaimed the gravel area Urban Body was using as their parking lot.
Owner Rad Slough was facing the possibility of running a popular gym, known for their energy spin and group fitness classes, with absolutely no parking and had to make a difficult business decision.
Announced early October, Slough was able to secure 15,000 square feet worth of space at Amsterdam Walk in Midtown.
Relocating to 500 Amsterdam Avenue, Urban Body Fitness is leaving sister company, Urban Body Studios at 730 Ponce de Leon Place, behind. Urban Body Studios is a Yoga and Pilates facility.
With only 22 spaces at their original location at 742 Ponce de Leon Place, Amsterdam Walk will provide nearly 300 spaces.
Will this transition workout?
Urban Body Fitness
742 Ponce de Leon Place
Atlanta, GA 30306
8 Responses
How ironic. The Beltline project, one that hopes to provide Atlanta with a more “pedestrian friendly environment” (among other benefits), is the reason a local business is relocating to a car-centric shopping mall with a large, front-facing, surface parking lot. Kinda sad. But I’m glad this business found a way to relocate and not go under.
When I walked the Beltline in the area near Urban Body I kept wondering to myself how the stores in the area would be able to coexist with the Beltline development. Unfortunately for the stores, it appears that at some point in the past the rails were pulled up in that vicinity to create a paved area as well as a much larger gravel road/parking lot. I guess the same thing will happen to the Park Tavern when the Beltline gets developed. They will have almost zero parking with limited options for relocating the spaces.
In contrast though, the Beltline is supposed to help make the city more pedestrian and bike friendly, so that you dont have to drive and park at these businesses.
Interesting is that, eventually, both the space they are leaving AND Amsterdam Walk are going to be serviced by the BeltLine.
As a member of Urban Body Fitness, I think Rad is headed in the right direction. If there’s anyone that supports the BeltLine, I know it’s him. His problem is with licensing and the city of Atlanta. I heard that he has to have a certain number of parking spots for a certain percentage of his members at all time to operate. While I’m sure he would love for everyone walk and bike and run to his gym – and many members do – the city of Atlanta just won’t allow him to operate under that assumption.
I left Urban Body last month because the place has become a less than satisfactory place to work out.
The level of staff has fallen. I hear staff, trainers AND other members complaining about what a jerk Slough is.
So, if the place goes under no big loss.
@Randall… sorry you feel that way. If you would like to explain why I am a jerk (I have no idea who you are)it would be much appreciated. I strive to improve myself and the company. I don’t claim to be perfect. I also realize that I can give every member everything they want.
As for my staff we work continually to coach our staff on how to do there jobs better and how to be contributors to the neighborhood. If you remember which employee needs coaching I will be happy to do the coaching.
@to all others. Please remember that I RENT the Beltline and have for years. The lease ended. As much as I hate having to move away from Studios….gotta make lemonade out of lemons.
I plan on making the best out of the situation. We are going to have a GREAT new space.
It will continually change over the next 2 months as we tweak the space. As much as I would like to say that placing the equipment is easy…it really isn’t. We are going to re-arrange the space several times (or I expect to do so) before we install the rest of the mirrors and such.
We hope to be able to soon teach running classes on the Beltline and find as many was to use the Beltline to our advantage. We have already adopted the Beltline behind Studios.