Transforming Retail Space into a Tech Hub's Dream
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Transforming Retail Space into a Tech Hub's Dream
The Factory at 600 West Chicago
The primary objective was to create a unique tenant amenity that transforms the building into a trophy asset and serves as a magnet for the tech community, offering state-of-the-art wellness and fitness facilities. By providing these sought-after amenities, the building aims to increase tenant retention and attract new tech startups and established companies looking for a vibrant workplace.
Lulafit goes beyond fitness, also engaging the full tenant population through wellness focused activations and building-wide communication aimed at creating a positive tenant experience for everyone in the building.
We achieve this through building-wide events and lobby activations marketed by our team.
Prior to the Oct 17, 2022 launch, Lulafit team evaluated the existing fitness space and found areas of greatest impact to improve facilities and create a higher end offering for tenants.
Underperforming Retail Space: The building housed a retail space that has failed to generate significant revenue over the years. To boost the building's overall appeal and provide value to tenants, the owners sought to transform this space into a highly desirable fitness center.
Large Space Footprint: The retail space earmarked for the fitness center is a massive 40-50K square feet. Designing and utilizing such a large space effectively presents its own set of challenges.
Catering to a Tech-Centric Tenant Population: The target tenant population consists of startups and top tech companies in Chicago. This tech hub community lacks access to fitness and wellness amenities, posing an opportunity to create a space tailored to their specific needs and preferences while still honoring the building's rich history.
In order to capture the attention and engagement of this young, vibrant, and intelligent workforce, we had to design and create something completely unique to the market which resulted in a one-of-a-kind wellness experience.
We took a stale, big box gym concept and transformed it into a wellness ecosystem that brings many different boutique fitness concepts together under one brand: The Factory. In this space, users can spin, box, run, lift, and train. They can enjoy studio spaces for pilates, yoga, and the cross-functional “Orange Theory” type workout.
To surprise and delight our tech-forward audience, we launched the country’s first-ever Therabody recovery room where users can lay in recovery pants, use Theraguns, and even virtual reality glasses.
In addition, we have three state-of-the-art mindfulness and meditation rooms equipped with lulafit technology to design your own mindful experience with custom virtual programming and content from the lulafit team.
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Week One
- 435+ memberships (20% of daily building occupancy)
- 71% of members signed up for and engaging with the lulafit app
- Launched 3 meditation rooms featuring unique themes + programmatic offerings, yoga + HIIT studios, boxing + functional fitness training and recovery room.
6 months
- 12,000 visits in 6 months
- Average Daily Use: 99 members / day
- Average Daily Use Tues - Thurs: 121 members / day
- Personal Training Revenue: $15,515 on a goal of $8,225 YTD
- Monthly rooftop yoga classes
- Monthly tenant/community engagement events
- Jessica Brown, Director of Leasing for Sterling Bay
