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The development at 3302-3308 E. Marshall St., where local gym River City Fit will soon move. (Jackie DiBartolomeo photo)
A Shockoe Bottom gym is moving up the hill.
River City Fit is relocating from the Pohlig Box building at 16 N. 25th St., to a 1,500-square-foot space in the recently finished two-story development at 3302-3308 E. Marshall St. in Church Hill.
The gym, which offers a variety of personal training and group classes, has been in the Pohlig building since it opened in 2019.
Though originally founded as a CrossFit-focused gym, River City Fit has had several transitions over the past six years, said founder and owner Jacob Keller.
"We shifted away from the CrossFit gym and shifted more into personal training and doing individual program design," Keller said, adding that it also focuses on clients who are postoperative or coming out of physical therapy.
River City Fit's current primary demographic is those between ages 40 and 70, a difference from the 20- and 30-year-olds that often populated the gym during its CrossFit-focused days, Keller said.
Jacob Keller at his gym a few years ago. (BizSense file photo)
With that transition over the past few years, Keller said he began in recent months to look for a new space to downsize, finding the 4,000 square feet in Shockoe a bit much for River City Fit's current needs.
"A big part of the reason we're moving is it's just more economical. ... The space requirements we needed as a CrossFit gym were much more ... whereas what we do now, we need far less," Keller said.
That search led him to the mixed-use development at 3302-3308 E. Marshall St., built up by developers Matt Jarreau and Casey White. Jarreau is an agent with Hometown Realty team George RVA, while White co-owns Keel Custom Homes.
Jarreau said River City Fit is taking over two of the three storefronts in the building. A remaining 940-square-foot storefront is still up for grabs, while all apartments above the storefronts are now leased out, he added.
River City Fit's new location is a sort of homecoming for Keller, as 3306 E. Marshall St. was previously home to CrossFit Prelude, a gym where Keller was a head coach (and Jarreau was a frequent customer) before it closed.
"I worked out at (CrossFit Prelude) for years," Jarreau said. "That's how I became familiar with the building and the owner of it." He is also a member at River City Fit.
Keller said he's hoping River City Fit and its three full-time employees can be moved into the new space by April of next year, pending permit approval for the upfit on the space.
Work like pouring a concrete floor and putting the walls up still needs to be done, Keller said. He estimates costs for that at around $65,000.
Keller said he hopes the smaller space can provide a place where gymgoers can interact and build friendships more easily.
"Having a 1,500-square-foot space is obviously going to bring people a little tighter, and it's going to make it much more likely and much more easy to connect within that space," he said.
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