San Francisco-based Planet Granite has just announced their second location in Chicago, a mere month after announcing a full-service climbing facility in the city.
From the Planet Granite Blog:
The second site at the Southwest corner of the intersection of N. Sheffield Ave. and W. Diversey Parkway will offer North Chicagoans a huge selection of quality climbing. This satellite bouldering gym is about two miles north of Planet Granite’s location at 1301 N. Kingsbury St.
“Being able to offer a bouldering gym that both complements our flagship location at Kingsbury and operates as a stand-alone facility enables us to better serve the community and provide a ton of variety,” says Stephanie Ko Pound, Sr. Dir. of Marketing. “This bouldering gym will be an amazing facility in a great location, providing additional value to our members by offering a second location in such close range.”
Located by a major metro stop, this expansive bouldering gym will have 24,000 square feet of space in a new custom designed building. The climbing facility will be on the second and third floors above a street level retail and will incorporate tons of windows and balconies to give a three-dimensional feel to the space. That brings the combined size for the PG Chicago sites to nearly 70,000 square feet. Both gyms will include yoga and fitness facilities—the combination is a signature characteristic of Planet Granite.
Planet Granite began with a family of gyms that grew together in the Bay Area, so this model is tested and true. Each gym has its own dedicated expert staffers to coach youth teams, to set routes and to lead yoga and fitness training. The close proximity of the gyms enables our members to climb regularly at a nearby facility but then travel to other facilities for new terrain.
“There is a good community of climbers in the Northwest corridor along Milwaukee and we hope to have an announcement about a third facility there soon,” says Pound. “Our goal is to open a pod of facilities in the Northwest quadrant of Chicago to give a similar variety of climbing as we offer with our three Bay Area facilities.”
The Chicago gyms will be built from scratch with the same focus as other PG gyms: serving the broad community of climbers and yogis by responding to the needs of individual passionate athletes who make up the whole.
Climbing Business Journal is an independent news outlet dedicated to covering the indoor climbing industry. Here you will find the latest coverage of climbing industry news, gym developments, industry best practices, risk management, climbing competitions, youth coaching and routesetting. Have an article idea? CBJ loves to hear from readers like you!
