With six new gyms in the development pipeline across Central Florida, the fitness industry and anything wellness-related are fast becoming some of the biggest retail players in the market today.

It’s one of the rare business sectors that appeals to all generations, from Gen Z to Boomers, said Gregg Katz, director of business industry solutions for Esri, a leading mapping software company.

“Even for Gen Z and Millennials, it’s about wellness and health and longevity, and, you know, just making life better,” he said.

At this year’s ICSC@Florida, the state’s largest retail convention and dealmaking conference, fitness and wellness in retail were a hot topic. Katz, who spoke about how age shapes retail trends, said concepts that focus on health and wellness “are going to have a huge runway,” he said.

Jason Kaiser, Senior VP for SRS Real Estate Partners, said gyms used to be considered undesirable uses for grocery-anchored retail centers, but that’s all changing. He recently closed a deal for EōS Fitness to lease a vacant big-box store in Colonial Plaza, near Sprouts.

“Fitness is huge because everybody’s going to the gym,” Kaiser said. “You’re seeing that whole lifestyle change … And normally groceries are like, no, thank you. We don’t want them. Sprouts is like, we love EōS — we want that customer. That customer that’s coming in three times, four times a week, it’s the same customer that comes into Sprouts for healthy eating.”

EōS Fitness is also building a 40,500-square-foot gym at Posner Village in Polk County.

Crunch Fitness is building its second new gym in St. Cloud and recently announced plans for a third in Clermont. Life Time Fitness has two mega gyms underway in Horizon West and Winter Park and is eyeing a potential third center as part of the redevelopment of Orlando’s Fashion Square Mall. That center would be the largest in the region, at 96,000 square feet, according to the developer M&M Realty Partners.

As gym operators grow their presence in the market, landlords are recruiting other wellness and medical-related retail uses. That includes everything from med spas to juice bars.

“We’re seeing a lot of that anti-aging with all the technology and all the stuff that goes into basically making us look younger,” Kaiser said.

Alexie Fonseca, senior VP for Colliers, told GrowthSpotter that everything related to the health and wellness sector is growing. “It started out where you could only do the IVs within a medical facility, and now there’s IV clinics that are part of med spas,” she said. “You’re getting all kinds of vitamins and things like that. So we’re looking at doing those type of things. And then now you’ve got the saunas.”

Orlando is now home to multiple sauna franchises, including SWTHZ, which is opening its second location in The Packing District, Perspire and Pause Studio.

“All these sauna franchises are expanding,” Fonseca said. “People are doing daily, infrared saunas, and then on top of that, you have the cold plunge.…and that’s become a really big trend. But five years ago, that wasn’t a thing. You know what I mean?”

Colliers’ Jorge Rodriguez, executive managing director for retail services, said all these clinics are selling a service that’s focused on preventive medicine. “I think that’s what’s driving that trend, for sure. OK, and there’s a boatload of money in it,” he said.

AdventHealth, the region’s largest hospital company, is branching into the med spa space with its new Serene concept, which debuted at the hospital’s downtown Orlando Innovation Tower on June 5. Fonseca said AdventHealth is planning a second Serene med spa as part of the retail complex on its Lake Nona campus. There, it could offer Botox injections, laser skin resurfacing, hydrafacials, IV drips, deep tissue massage and other wellness and anti-aging services.

Joel George, AdventHealth’s executive director of retail services, said the company is leveraging its “trusted brand” status into this new wellness interest. “And so people will feel more comfortable coming to AdventHealth to do med spa-related things, because it’s backed by certified, credentialed people.”

George said the hospital is also looking to expand into infrared saunas and IV therapy. He’s planning to add both services to the AdventHealth Orlando Magic Training Center downtown and to future Health Parks and medical office buildings in Minneola, Poinciana, Lake Nona and Celebration.

“So my whole wheelhouse is really the anti-aging, longevity concierge space,” George said. “I’m really trying to push that agenda at AdventHealth, and thinking about how we start dabbling in that space, as well.”

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