The BXNG Club, which is based in East Village, is opening a 17,000-square-foot gym in Solana Beach with plans to open an additional club in Ranch Bernardo later this year and one in Los Angeles in 2023.
“I want to continue building the company with hopes that we can become a nationally recognized brand in the combat sports fitness space,” said Artem Sharoshkin, CEO and owner of The BXNG Club. “This will take time and strategic partnerships.”
CEO/Owner
The BXNG Club
The Solana Beach property was a fitness center that closed. Sharoshkin said that he bought it for nearly $1.7 million and spent nearly $600,000 renovating it.
“It’s got a huge parking area, which for Solana Beach is crucial,” Sharoshkin said.
As the biggest of its clubs, Solana Beach will be the company’s corporate headquarters remain in East Village, where it opened a club in 2018 in a downtown apartment tower, Shift.
The company expanded in 2019, opening a club in Kearny Mesa.
Character
The Solana Beach Club has a full-size professional boxing ring and a smaller ring, more than 50 heavy punching bags, a 3,000-square-foot outdoor training area, a grappling area, an indoor cycling studio, a cardio deck and weight room, a recovery studio featuring cryotherapy, locker rooms, saunas, and a members’ lounge.
“There’s going to be a lot more group fitness classes that don’t entail combat sports,” Sharoshkin said. “The BXNG Club is forever changing. We’re always keeping track of the latest fitness trends.”
In recognition of its beachside location, the Solana Beach club also will have surfboards available for members.
“They can grab a board and just take it into the water,” Sharoshkin said.
In what has become a signature of the company, the Solana Beach club also will have a large mural on an inside wall by Kyle Boatwright depicting boxer Muhammad Ali in different poses.
Boatwright also is spray painting inspirational quotes on interior gym walls in a graffiti style.
“That’s the yin and yang concept that we like. You have this pristine facility and it almost feels like someone broke in and tagged a bunch of walls,” Sharoshkin said. “We have a lot of wall space. To give the building a little more character, we wanted to do something a little more creative, almost an art gallery effect.”
Growth
Still in the planning stages, the Rancho Bernardo club will be 16,000 square feet and will have many of the same features as the Solana Beach club, Sharoshkin said.
He’s also hoping to open a Los Angeles club in the second quarter of 2023.
“We’ve been kind of gearing up for that,” Sharoshkin said.
Longer term, Sharoshkin said he’d like to open a club in Pacific Beach and in other North County locations.
So far, Sharoshkin said that he has relied on debt financing for the company’s growth.
“We are currently preparing for the first round of fundraising to fund the expansion,” Sharoshkin said.
Recovery
As with many fitness clubs, the company was hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through 2020 and early 2021, The BXNG Club lost about 40 % of its members, Sharoshkin said.
Since then, the company has regained its membership and then some, with membership reaching 30 % higher by the end of 2021 than it was prior to the start of the pandemic.
By the summer of 2021, the company had 3,600 members, Sharoshkin said.
Another setback of sorts came in March 2022 when the company had to close its original location in UTC to make way for the redevelopment the Costa Verde shopping center.
“Our hope is to come back to UTC but that market is extremely challenging to navigate as life science organizations have acquired most of the commercial real estate even before it hit the market,” Sharoshkin said.
The opening of the Solana Beach club “is an exciting way to emerge from the pandemic,” Sharoshkin said.
Originally called The Boxing Club, the company rebranded to The BXNG CLUB to differentiate itself from other boxing clubs.
Sharoshkin was a welterweight champion in Muay Thai – a form of kick boxing – until he stopped fighting professionally in 2013.
A native of Russia, Sharoshkin immigrated to the United States in 2004. He worked at The Boxing Club in UTC as a janitor, then trainer, then training director, then became its co-owner in 2014 with Patrick Van Schoote. He bought Van Schoote’s interest in the company in 2021.
The BXNG Club
Founded:1999
CEO/Owner: Artem Sharoshkin
Headquarters: East Village
Business: Fitness clubs
Employees: 97
Annual revenue: $5.2 million
Website: www.thebxngclub.com
Notable: The club offers instruction in boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu along with strength training, yoga and cycling.
