Luxury Gyms, Wellness Clubs Dominate NYC Retail Leasing Activity

High-end fitness operators claimed four of the ten largest retail leases in New York City in 2025, with major gym deals taking the two top spots

Evidence of the fitness and wellness industry’s takeover of New York City is literally everywhere, including in the biggest real estate deals across the Big Apple.

Boutique studios, gyms and wellness brands claimed the largest retail leases in the city, according to a recent quarterly report from real estate company JLL. The report’s findings were first reported by The Real Deal, a publication that covers real estate news.

In NYC, the top two retail leases since April were major gym deals: Chelsea Piers’ new 76,000-square-foot Seaport location in Manhattan and Life Time’s 71,000-square-foot North Williamsburg deal in Brooklyn. In 2025, luxury fitness operators like Equinox, Life Time and Chelsea Piers claimed four of the ten largest retail leases in the city.

It’s not just gyms dominating real estate, either. Wellness concepts are close behind in their ambitious deals, with longevity clinic Atria Health’s 52,000-square foot Chelsea lease, while communal sauna spaces like Othership continue growing in popularity, as the brand plans to open a new 14,000-square foot location on the Upper East Side in 2027.

The trend in NYC mirrors national real estate and leasing shifts, as service-based businesses take up a bigger slice of the pie in replacing traditional retail categories. Last year, for the first time ever, retail leasing by service-oriented tenants overtook goods-based retail leasing, as gyms, salons and spas accounted for over 50% of total retail square footage in the U.S.

The trend is holding strong in NYC, as luxury gyms and exciting new wellness concepts are overtaking traditional apparel and big-box grocers for top addresses in the city.

That success has arrived despite New York’s crowded market, as retail vacancies in Manhattan’s prime corridors dropped to 12% — the lowest since 2019, the report found.

JLL analysts point to the wellness boom and post-pandemic rise in in-person fitness for filling spaces that would have typically struggled during slower leasing periods.