After much anticipation throughout 2013, The Club by George Foreman III has officially opened in the Seaport as of today. Got a New Year’s Resolution you have to make good on? You’ll want to listen up.
The 16,000-square-foot space, located off of Congress Street on Channel Centre Street, is a goldmine when it comes to exercise facilities – with a stress on the term club over gym – as it caters to everyone, whether you’re big on working out or not. Rather than simply a boxing club, the facility features multiple components (boxing included) of equipment that Foreman calls a “full service fitness club.”
The Club offers yoga, spinning, Pilates, full weights, cardio, a boxing court complete with training equipment and even a studio specifically for ab work. Foreman is scheduled to teach 30 classes throughout the week, in case you were worried you weren’t signing up for the real thing. In fact, the entire facility was built with Foreman’s belief in “social fitness” in mind.
“When I started the gym, I wanted to have a third place between the gym and the home for people, whether they like working out or not,” Foreman explained. “It’s like a hang out. You can get a smoothie, chat and meet new people, and that’s what I’m most happy about.”
By adding the social factor, Foreman hopes a more fit lifestyle will take off in Boston during a time of physical culture where “our minds are overstimulated and our bodies understimulated.”
“What I was trying to create is like when people go into a Starbucks with no intention of buying a coffee,” Foreman said. “They just want to sit with their laptops and look around. The difference is we’ll be selling health and fitness.”
So far, 500 people have signed up to be the “First 500” members of Foreman’s Club during the special rates presale introduced in September of 2013, and with their membership, they’re considered to be “founding members” of the facility. For members, the Club offers two packages: the “Open Gym” and the “All Inclusive,” with the All Inclusive package featuring perks like unlimited Hot-Box and Box-FIIT classes (FIIT standing for Fighting Intensity Interval Training).
The Club was slated to open in December of 2013, and Foreman spoke to the long process of opening a business in the city, adding, “I’m happy to just get those doors open in general.” Throughout the process, Foreman searched for the perfect area to build his gym, and eventually realized that if he couldn’t find a space in the up-and-coming Seaport District, he didn’t want to launch the Boston gym. Luckily, the Fort Point location worked out with only a slight delay in opening.
For now, Foreman will be focusing on getting the Boston gym up and running, although he would like to open a second facility in the future. He’s hoping that the social fitness culture will catch on in the city, and wants to ensure that happens before moving on.
“That’s what I’m most excited about, to see if this really works,” Foreman said. “I didn’t invent treadmills or boxing, but I’m bringing back social fitness. That would be a great accomplishment for me.”
With the first day just about over, opening a luxury gym facility during a snowstorm might have seemed like a gamble. But Foreman said it hasn’t gotten off to a poor start considering the conditions.
“People have been crawling in all day, I don’t know how,” said Foreman. “But they’ve found a way to come in.”
The Club by George Foreman III will be offering their special presale rates ($100 a month for the Open Gym package or $130 a month for the All Inclusive package) until January 15. Sign up and jumpstart your 2014 resolutions here.
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