NY-based gym chain to lease old Hastings

Crunch Fitness to revamp Manzano strip mall space for 2018 opening

From couch potatoes watching movies to fitness buffs working out.

The space formerly occupied by Hastings at Lomas and Juan Tabo NE will be converted into a Crunch Fitness, a New Yorkbased gym concept.

The location is 22,529 square feet and has a wide open floor plan, perfect for a fitness center, said Rob Powell, a broker with AllenSigmon Real Estate Group, one of several brokers representing the Manzano Shopping Center Landlords, Eisenberg Manzano LLC.

This will be the first Crunch Fitness franchise in Albuquerque. Construction is to begin “immediately,” according to Powell, and the hope is for an opening date in early 2018. The first New Mexico location is set to open in Las Cruces this year.

Crunch Fitness specializes in classes ranging from spin to pole-dancing to yoga. It also offers a full gym and personal trainers.

Michael Butler, managing partner for Lockehouse Retail Group, the firm representing Crunch Fitness said the company is looking to add two or three more Albuquerque locations in the next two years.

The AllenSigmon team — Powell, Jeff Martinez, Austin Tidwell and Daniel Kearney — has worked to fill the large space since Hastings liquidated last fall and has had to overcome a number of hurdles.

“There is a bunch of box space out there,” said Powell. “So when Hastings vacated the market, they left this square footage and the (difficulty) was in trying to find different users for that type.”

Though progress in filling the former Hastings locations has been slow, there has been movement throughout the state.

Peterson Properties has leased two locations in New Mexico recently. One, a 28,532-square foot space in Farmington, was leased to EntertainMart, a company similar to Hastings. According to Peterson, EntertainMart bought the top five Hastings locations in the region with the intention of carrying on the same model.

In Alamogordo, Peterson also leased a 22,500-square-foot space to discount store Burkes Outlet.

The Crunch Fitness lease represents the first Hastings location to be sold or leased in the Albuquerque area, according to the AllenSigmon team. “The site was chosen because of the visibility and traffic in and around the shopping center,” Butler said. “Crunch is attracted to this particularly dense trade area.”

Powell and Martinez say the addition has the potential to help revitalize the Manzano Shopping Center at Juan Tabo and Lomas NE.

“We are excited about it because I think ... bringing more traffic to the center only helps the tenants around it,” Martinez said.

Other tenants include Dollar General, Metro PCS, Liberty Tax, Dr. Dental and Rustic Tea.