Life Time plans December opening for southwest Las Vegas club on the long-empty Sullivan Square site at Sunset and Durango

What happened

Minnesota-based fitness chain Life Time plans to open a new athletic club in the southwest valley, across from Ikea, in December, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The facility at 8555 W. Sunset Road, on the southeast corner of Sunset Road and Durango Drive, will be the company's third club in Southern Nevada.

During a late September tour, Life Time management told the Review-Journal that more than 10,000 people had joined the waitlist. Monthly memberships will start at around $350, with a $200 initiation fee that managers said they expect to climb. Spokeswoman Natalie Bushaw said the club will have upwards of roughly 400 employees.

What the three-story club will include

Indoor floors

According to a floorplan posted online, the first level of the 128,000-square-foot building will have three indoor pools, a spa, a cafe, and locker rooms with saunas, steam rooms, cold plunges and whirlpools. The second floor will hold six pickleball courts with a lounge, a Kids Academy, several group fitness studios and private office suites members can pay extra to use.

The third level will house the main workout area with weights, cardio machines and group fitness space. Harry Reo, Life Time's senior general manager for the Las Vegas market, described one training circuit as "bougie CrossFit," the Review-Journal reported.

Outdoor amenities

Outside, the club will offer a lap pool, a leisure pool with water slides, and a bar and bistro. "You're not joining a gym; Life Time truly is an athletic country club experience," Bushaw told the Review-Journal.

A site left empty for years

The Sullivan Square plan

During the mid-2000s real estate bubble, Las Vegas and Irish developers teamed up on a multi-tower project on the 15-acre site called Sullivan Square. The Review-Journal previously reported it was designed to include housing, retail and office space, along with bike lanes, art fairs and a dog park. Drilling and blasting began in 2007, and developers held a ceremonial groundbreaking that year with eight hot-air balloons.

Sullivan Square was never built and was hit with litigation. Its developers left an excavated hole at the corner that reached around 30 feet deep, according to a former listing broker for the site.

Purchase, pandemic and construction

Life Time bought the plot in fall 2019 for $14 million and won Clark County approvals for a three-story health club in early 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of 2020, around 6,800 health clubs had permanently closed and $20.4 billion in revenue was lost, according to the Health & Fitness Association. Life Time booked a $360 million net loss for 2020, compared with a $30 million gain for 2019.

The company broke ground last year after the Clark County Building Department issued a commercial building permit valued at $29 million. Founder Bahram Akradi told the Review-Journal last year that the wait came from managing the company's balance sheet "through the ravages of COVID." Readers can follow more projects like this in our development coverage.

How it fits the local fitness market

Life Time already has clubs in Summerlin and Henderson, where memberships start at around $340 per month. It also built an apartment complex called Life Time Living next to the Henderson club. Parham Javaheri, the company's president of real estate, said the new site will be Life Time's 200th athletic club and is among the most expensive in its pipeline, though he declined to give total project costs. "We're a resort without having to go to one of the casinos," he said.

Other gyms are expanding locally, the Review-Journal reported. Fit Club Las Vegas opened a roughly 7,800-square-foot location last year in a former Regal movie theater on Eastern Avenue. Municipal Gym, founded by Mark Wahlberg, plans a more than 30,000-square-foot location in Downtown Summerlin, and 24 Hour Fitness owner Mark Mastrov said his team signed a lease for another valley location.

What to watch next

• Life Time's planned December opening at 8555 W. Sunset Road.
• Whether the $200 initiation fee rises, as managers told the Review-Journal they expect.
• Municipal Gym's first location, planned to open early next year in Downtown Summerlin.
• Where 24 Hour Fitness opens the additional valley location its owner said is under lease.