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New climbing gym in Bellingham?
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What are the odds this gets built? |
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Vital is building a second location that will have roped climbing… is that what you’re talking about? Its well on its way. |
J Roatch wrote: Yeah thanks. Do they have an expected opening date ? |
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Not that I’m aware of.
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J Roatch wrote: Well anything is a step up from the bouldering gym at the dance studio. |
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Theres an abandoned factory building right by the mtb park, id love to see THAT converted to a climbing gym with sport climbing on the outside of the building too, and a brewery next door. That whole area is full of adventure sports. I dont have the coin or knowledge to do something like this but I know itd be successful. I think Bellingham needs a rope gym to help get ppl ready for outside. Offer classes for lead, multi pitch, and more Imagine taking a huge whipper as groups of people are walking over to the food truck area. Itd draw in a lot of attention and inspiration |
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Hasn’t that info been up for a couple years? If they couldn’t make it happen when rates were 3% I’m not going to hold my breath. |
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Bellingham has been "getting a new rope gym" for 4 years now |
diepj wrote: Yeah the word on the street is that funding backed out when rates went up, and now borrowing money to build a gym doesn't pencil out with current interest payments. It's funny, I don't normally give a shit about interest rates but I've been watching stuff like treasury rates pretty closely because if they drop, we get a new gym.  |
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It’s certainly possible and Bellingham seems very ripe for a gym but construction costs have also inflated considerably. Even with low rates it might not pencil with a larger investment required. |
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I would love to see a climbing co-op. I love the idea of a full service gym, and do think bellingham is big enough to support one. I don't love how VITAL the corporation seems to short change people who are training focused. The staff are great, and I think the community as a whole really comes together at the gym. That being said, it is unbearably crowded always, and it is getting worse. My ideal gym for bellingham would include the following (not that anyone asked) Well set spray wall with a book: Japanese style set. Comp style walls: Japanese style set. Weekly or biweekly challenges are great and allow setters to do really cool hard stuff and not cater to the masses. This is a dream training gym, boulderers have dreams too. At least two system boards: I like kilter, but a tension and or a moonboard would be sick as well. You can train different styles and systems. A crack machine system: We live in granite crack paradise. There are so many traddies here who itch every time there is a hand jam set at VITAL. Lets get one of the modular size systems that you can adjust steepness on. Reach goal is OW machine and adjustable roof crack machine. An actual god damn gym where you can cross train. I don't want to pay for two gym memberships so I can squat or do barbell stuff. I don't want to be squished next to the 4 other people trying to warm up, do yoga, do muscle ups, etc. I feel like you could squeeze all of that into a space smaller than vital. I think a co-op model could reduce the cost and let people who want to prioritize training have a space to do it without the expectation of trendy wood counter tops, team kids (although I love the young senders don't get me wrong), rental shoes, etc. You bring your own shoes and chalk, there isn't a snack bar or whatever, don't come here to do your laptop job or homework. It is not the place for people to have a birthday party. There isn't a climbing 101 session. The problem as always is money. I can't imagine that you could even start opening the doors to a place like this for less than 250k, and because gyms make money on all of the amenities, it would be hard to make a business plan work. |
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Hey guys! GREAT to see your conversation here, which I just randomly came across on the interweb. This is Gabe... the guy building the new gym... Chalkboard. With your great questions and comments above, similar to ones I often receive from our awesome climbing community, I thought I'd chime in, in hopes of giving you some peace of mind... and stoke! The (big, bad ass) gym is still very much ON! You guys nailed it. In a nutshell, to combat the post-Covid doubling of interest rates and massive rise in construction costs, I actually had to go the opposite direction most would think... instead of cutting the gym way back (tried that), I added two levels of apartments above. Although this makes the project significantly larger, it helps with the financing viability. Although it has appeared to the community, the project has stalled out, I can assure you, it has not. With VITAL being the community-centric gym operator they are (have 10-ish gyms throughout the country and are under great ownership), it only makes sense to team up with them. They'll be leasing the space and operating the gym under the VITAL name. We'll be announcing the updates in the next few weeks, but seeing as I ran across your conversation, I thought I'd say hello and give you a heads up. :) Feel free to say hello if you see me at VITAL. :) Gabe |
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Gabe Rogel, now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time! Yo! |
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Ha! I’ve been hiding out in Bellingham, building a climbing gym. I’m sorry, have we met? :) |
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Thanks for the update! I am been super curious as to what was actually going on with that project. This sounds like a couple year build I would assume? |
