Chicago could soon be home to the largest climbing gym in the U.S.
Planet Granite announced an expansion of a new climbing gym set to open in in the city by 2018.
The new gym will take up 45,000 square feet of space and will be located at 1301 N Kingsburg St. in Goose Island. The Chicago location will mark the fifth and largest gym for Planet Granite and their first gym to be located outside the West Coast.
“We have a unique opportunity to build, from the ground up, a custom-designed and truly world-class facility, which will be the largest of its kind in the country,” Micky Lloyd, founder of Planet Granite said in a statement. “Chicago is a wonderful city full of athletic and outdoor folks, and we look forward to creating a superb gym for them to train in.”
The new Goose Island climbing gym is set to exceed the space of Vertical Endeavors in Glendale Heights, which is named among the largest climbing facilities in the U.S.
The Chicago gym has plans to offer a four-story facility equipped with bouldering, top rope and lead climbing. It will also feature yoga classes and group fitness classes, an open floor fitness space with extensive equipment, including weights and cardio machines, comprehensive climbing training areas, a gear shop, and lockers rooms with additional amenities.
Chicago has seen a growing interest in climbing, as gyms and parks have slowly started to add climbing facilities. Lakeshore Sport & Fitness, Xsport Fitness, Fitness Formula, and Lincoln Park Athletic Club are among the health clubs around Chicago that offer climbing walls. First Ascent and Brooklyn Boulders, two major climbing developers, have also opened locations around the city in the past couple years. Maggie Daley Park is home to a 19,000 square foot climbing space, as well, which welcomed thousands of climbers for the first time last year.
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“There are several good climbing gyms in town and we look forward to working with them to help grow the climbing community,” Lloyd said.
