Rock climbers who live in south Denver will now have a new indoor crag to call home.
Movement Climbing, Yoga, & Fitness, a climbing company with climbing and fitness gyms across the country, is opening its sixth location in Colorado at 9657 E. County Line Rd., located just south of Ikea.
The site used to be an old Golf Galaxy, according to Movement’s Chief Marketing Officer Charlotte Bosley.
“For us to have an open space like that was super great. We’re going to go in and pop the rooftop,” she said.
With climbing walls as tall as 55 feet in height, Movement’s new Centennial location will be 41,000 square feet and will feature 28,000 square feet of climbing, including bouldering, top rope and lead climbing routes. Customers can enjoy yoga and fitness classes in the dedicated yoga and fitness area in the rest of the space, including Olympic lifting stations, in addition to a gear shop.
The climbing and fitness company Movement began forming in 2019 after climbing company El Cap — the parent company of Earth Treks and Planet Granite gyms — acquired Colorado-based Movement Climbing + Fitness. At that time Movement had locations in the River North Arts District, Baker and Boulder.
The companies rebranded last December to Movement Climbing, Yoga, & Fitness. Now, the two previous Earth Treks locations in the Denver area — at 700 Golden Ridge Road in Golden and 1050 W. Hampden Ave. in Englewood — have both rebranded to Movement.
The husband-and-wife founders of Movement Climbing + Fitness are still with the recently formed company, Mike Moelter as part of the real estate team and Anne-Worley Moelter as a board director, according to Bosley.
“Right now, we’re the largest nationwide company in the climbing world in the U.S. Right now, we have 19 (locations),” Bosley said, adding that Movement is opening its 20th in October.
Pandemic restrictions on indoor businesses did not slow Movement’s growth much; the company opened two climbing gyms in Chicago and one in Dallas during the pandemic. Now, Movement has locations in Oregon, California, Colorado, Illinois, Texas, Maryland and Virginia.
When members kept asking for a gym closer to where they lived, it made sense for Movement to consider the Denver Tech Center and the broader Centennial area.
“Really, this opportunity was presented to us and we just grabbed it,” Bosley said. Movement hopes to finish construction on its Centennial location in 2024. Movement sources its climbing walls from Bulgaria-based manufacturer Walltopia.
Bosley did not reveal the amount of money Movement is spending on its newest climbing gym. On its website, a monthly membership at Movement’s Baker location costs $91.
The company plans to hire between 80 and 120 team members when the new Centennial location opens in 2024.
Bosley did not disclose how many more Denver-area locations might be coming down the pipeline.
“I think we’re always trying to grow in the region that we have existing locations,” she said.
Other business additions near Movement’s newest location include a basketball-focused franchise called PickUP USA Fitness opening in Greenwood Village’s Arapahoe Entertainment District. And in the Park Meadows shopping mall south of the newest Movement, Russell Wilson and Ciara recently opened their fashion store called The House of LR&C.
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