Midtown Planet Fitness to open in late 2021
Replaces gym planned but canceled during pandemic
Planet Fitness plans to open its first location in Midtown Detroit, inside the new Henry Ford-Detroit Pistons Performance Center.
Construction work for the gym is to begin this month in anticipation of a late 2021 opening, according to a joint announcement Tuesday by the Pistons and Planet Fitness.
The Planet Fitness will replace a planned Blink Fitness in the Performance Center, 690 Amsterdam, that was expected to be open by
mid-2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
In a statement, a Blink Fitness representative said its now-canceled Midtown site would have been a franchise location and that “in light of the COVID pandemic and extended government-mandated gym shutdowns in Michigan, the decision was made not to open.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted her shutdown orders for Michigan gyms last September.
The new Planet Fitness could help fill some of the void left by the closure last year of a nearby FitnessWorks Gym, 6525 Second Ave. in the city’s New Center, that had many retirement-age members.
However, the Planet Fitness will lack many of the shuttered fitness center’s features, such as a swimming pool, indoor jogging
track and basketball and racquetball courts.
Nevertheless, Planet Fitness’ basic $10 monthly membership fee is significantly cheaper than Fitness Works’ $65 monthly fee.
The Performance Center opened in 2019 and has two sides: one half for the hospital system’s sports medicine clinic, the other for the Pistons’ practice facility and corporate headquarters.
The building also contains a new Plum Market that closed to the general public once the pandemic hit but is expected to reopen.
The new gym will be the second Planet Fitness in Detroit after a location in the Meijer plaza near Woodward on 8 Mile.
Plans to open another Planet Fitness in 2018 at 1400 Woodbridge St., near the city’s east riverfront, were scrapped amid a leasing dispute. Since then, a small Anytime Fitness location downtown closed just days before the pandemic arrived.
The new Planet Fitness will be operated by the Northville-based franchise PF Michigan Group. Planet Fitness has been the “fitness partner” of the Pistons since 2018.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to expand our marketing partnership by bringing the Judgement Free Zone to the new Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center,” Bryan Rief, co-owner and CEO of PF Michigan Group, said in a statement.
Contact JC Reindl at 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.