New climbing gym in Denver

I wonder if the Paradise rock gym guys have given up. We need a gym just north of Downtown, I'm with Allen Hill on this one.

Mark Wyss wrote:I know the traffic on 25 is a pain pretty much all day long, but after reading a few posts, I am thinking about a gym in the 6th/Colfax ave and I-25 vicinity. Easy commute for the Golden climbers, Easy to find an alternate route to the gym if there is an accident on 25. It will be close to downtown and CU Denver/Metro. Not terribly far from DU or Regis. There is a light rail station close as well.

If your argument to not building around the 470 & Santa Fe area was it was too close to RJ2, then why 6th Ave and I-25? That is only 16 minutes from RJ1 per google maps...

Wehling wrote:If your argument to not building around the 470 & Santa Fe area was it was too close to RJ2, then why 6th Ave and I-25? That is only 16 minutes from RJ1 per google maps...

Funny how my opinion is so well known on this and I haven't even piped in on this thread! There's a lot of perfect buildings northeast of downtown. And cheap! That's my vote but the Colfax/1-25 area is also appealing. The theatre in the Bonfil complex has been reopened by the Denver Film Society. Rick lets grab a beer and plot our influencing of this gyms future location.

A gym close to Allen's house would be awesome, for me and the thousands of other Denver climbers in that area.

I'd love to see a gym down town or in the general vacinity. Currently there is only one gym in town and it is the Denver Bouldering Club (only bouldering and expensive at that). I currently am a member at RJ1/2 and it is such a pain in the ass to get there after work with traffic. I light rail it to work also, so I have to get home, get the car, then sit in a parking lot on I-25 that I normally avoid. Look on the RTD Fast Trax website and look for a location close to town and to existing or under construction rail please! There will naturally be new developement/traffic near the Transit Oriented Districts (TOD's) that new and re-developed rail stations will create. I'd gladly change my membership and maybe even pay a higher rate for my 6 month pass for a more convienent gym even if it was only about the same size as RJ1.

Michael Slater wrote:I'd love to see a gym down town or in the general vacinity. I currently am a member at RJ1/2 and it is such a pain in the ass to get there after work with traffic. I'd gladly change my membership and maybe even pay a higher rate for my 6 month pass for a more convienent gym even if it was only about the same size as RJ1.

Often times I meet friends at the gym who live in another part of town - further supporting a central Denver location.

Wally

We were just talking about this the other day. There are a lot of climbers in the Littleton/Lakewood/Morrison area who travel the awful commute to hit the gyms, all of which are to the east. It would be so nice to have something on the west side along the C-470 corridor. It would offer easier access for the SW climbers and still be accessible for climbers approaching from the east via 285. Golden would be nice too. I-25 and Colfax is good but still doesn't offer much releif for those of us on the west side. I still miss Paradise. I heard they may not be coming back.

Michael Slater wrote:I'd love to see a gym down town or in the general vacinity. Currently there is only one gym in town and it is the Denver Bouldering Club (only bouldering and expensive at that). I currently am a member at RJ1/2 and it is such a pain in the ass to get there after work with traffic. I light rail it to work also, so I have to get home, get the car, then sit in a parking lot on I-25 that I normally avoid. Look on the RTD Fast Trax website and look for a location close to town and to existing or under construction rail please! There will naturally be new developement/traffic near the Transit Oriented Districts (TOD's) that new and re-developed rail stations will create. I'd gladly change my membership and maybe even pay a higher rate for my 6 month pass for a more convienent gym even if it was only about the same size as RJ1.

Golden/West-side would be great...please allow dry-tooling wherever it ends up going...the only gym I know of that allows DT'ing is in CO-Springs...and I'll never go that far to pull plastic.

I heard that they are looking for developers for the old Stapleton air traffic control tower. That would make a cool gym! although the location is not ideal.

My vote location-wise is downtown/central.

First off, thank you for considering a gym in Denver proper. I believe that there is more than enough demand between the colleges and the young professionals who choose to live in the city to sustain an actual gym in Denver. Also, the current problem is that all gyms are in the suburbs, so to put a new one in west Denver is to maintain the status quo of there being no gym in a city of over 500,000 people. I also agree that the south Broadway area would be great. What about the old "kitty's" facility? I think it is empty or for sale. It would help revamp a block in an already great neighborhood. In any case, great discussion!

cheers,
mike

mike suarez wrote:south Broadway area... the old "kitty's" facility...

Thanks for the feedback everyone...keep it coming.

I agree that putting a gym in the Lakewood area to cater W. Denver and Golden climbers might work well. However if you put one that far west it seems you are not going to get many climbers at all from the developing Aurora area. Hence eliminating an entire section of Denver.

It seems like there is an opinion from a few climbers (not necessarily one's that have posted here on MP) in Golden/Arvada that driving to the 6th and I-25 area is too far. I live in the S. Broadway area and take 6th west to go to CCC and the commute doesn't seem like it would be too painful.

However I am still fairly new to the Denver and the "how long it takes to get from here to there" is still something I am learning. I am also originally from St. Louis where you can pretty much expect to drive 20 min to get to where you want to go every time you leave the house.

Time for the Sugar Bowl...Go Blue!

The reality is that Denver could easily boost several additional gyms if they are set-up to cater to certain niches.

The south and west sides of the city are relatively far from any current gyms today and could easily support a smaller gym. However it needs to cater to the locale which is a lot of birthday parties and a lot of suburban type things. Also I would assume it would be hard to gain a lot of memberships from the occasional climber as the existing work-out gym infrastructure is significantly more robust and concentrated then anything in Denver proper. I would expect a rock'n jam'n sized gym could do very well in that area with or without any gyms in central Denver.

A gym in the city limits of Denver would be prime. There is no reason why there shouldn't be a world-class gym here that can easily be one of the top gyms in the country. There is limited direct competition (thrillseekers, DBC, RJ), unorganized and sparse indirect competition (other workout facilities), and a huge population. The gym would need to be big, cater to a diverse population, centered near I-25 and near lightrail access (to take advantage of huge populations of the Auroria campus and the DU campus). Remember that people in Golden will gripe about the distance even if it is <20 mins b/c CCC is <5 mins away.

The hard part is getting a quality location and from my real estate research in the area it is unlikely that an existing building can be used unless it was heavily renovated. Land and Parking are available, however decent sized parcels in good locations are not cheap. Also a few areas like the Santa Fe art district and the warehouses around there may appear to be very close to lightrail, etc until you realize that they are not designed for pedestrian access and can easily be a 30 min walk from a lightrail.

The more I have researched gyms the more surprised I am at the lack of quality gyms in the Denver Metro. Currently the largest gym in the USA is in Atlanta which already has several gyms and from what I can tell is hours from serious outdoor rock.

What kind of capital are you talking about? More or Less then $1 million? Does it involve the purchase of building/land?

Also read everything posted here: climbsoill.blogspot.com/

Mark Wyss wrote: I agree that putting a gym in the Lakewood area to cater W. Denver and Golden climbers might work well.

Legs Magillicutty wrote: Is Thrill Seekers still around?

Speaking of Thrill Seekers, Mark should go and spend some time w/ Kevin on the realities of gym ownership