Fit Athletic Club, based in downtown San Diego, has opened its first private fitness club in the Sorrento Mesa community of 3Roots in what the company’s founder and owner said will be his revised business model.
The club is open only to people who live in 3 Roots, a new housing development under construction by Mesa Canyon Community Partners, a partnership formed by Lennar, Shea Homes and Cal West.
3Roots bills itself as a community that’s focused on wellness and having a fully staffed fitness club as a centerpiece, is part of that, according to said Ryan Green, San Diego Division president of Lennar.
“As a wellness-focused community, teaming up with Fit to make this recreation center the heart of 3Roots just made sense,” Green said.
The development at 9255 Camino Santa Fe is expected to take five years to complete and is slated to have 1,800 homes on a 413-acre site.
Scott Lutwak, who founded Fit Athletic in 2008, said that he’s cutting back on the number of clubs he owns, preferring to operate clubs under the Fit Athletic Club name without an ownership interest.
Founder
Fit Athletic Club
“As an entrepreneur, I don’t want to own fitness centers any more, I want to manage and operate them,” Lutwak said. “I think fitness needs to be everywhere and I can’t lease space and build out space and buy equipment on my own and open hundreds of locations.”
Lutwak said that he retains ownership of Fit Athletic Clubs in Mission Beach and downtown San Diego but sold clubs in Solana Beach and Carmel Valley.
By operating and managing clubs instead of owning them, “I can expand the program easier and wider,” Lutwak said, adding that the 3Roots Fit Athletic is an example of how he wants the company to evolve and grow.
Membership in the 3Foots Fit Athletic Club is included as part of the community homeowners’ association.
“If you’re living in the community, you’re automatically a member of the club,” Lutwak said. “What I’m most excited about is that these new projects that Lennar is doing and these new projects that other big developers are doing are really emphasizing fitness as the nucleus of the community to bring people together.”
The 3Roots club will expand Fit Athletic Club’s offerings to include physical therapy, cryotherapy and a recovery area – “things that weren’t emphasized a lot pre-COVID that are really emphasized a lot post-COVID,” Lutwak said.
“The difference between this facility and our other facilities is a lot of the emphasis is on recovery as well as strength,” Lutwak said. “Prior to COVID, I would position fitness in what I would consider the vanity camp. People were working out more to look good than to be healthy. Now, coming out of the pandemic, the reason the fitness industry is recovering so quickly is it’s opening up to a whole new demographic of people. They’re coming to a fitness center not to look good, but to get their bodies prepared for the next pandemic, the next flu around the corner. It’s not about building muscles anymore as it is about building your immune system.”
Fit Athletic Club
Founded: 2008
Owner and Founder: Scott Lutwak
Headquarters: Little Italy
Business: Fitness clubs
Employees: 210
Website: www.fitathletic.com
Contact: 858-674-4480
Notable: Fit Athletic Club offers personal fitness classes including yoga, spin and bootcamp, indoor and outdoor turf training areas and workout equipment.
