A Huge New Indoor Rock Climbing Gym Is Opening Near Philadelphia
Reach Climbing and Fitness is slated to open in Fall 2018.
Rendering courtesy Reach Climbing and Fitness.
Mike Feinberg has been a climbing addict since he was a kid. He competed throughout high school, but it wasn’t long before he wanted to find better facilities — the kind he felt the East Coast just couldn’t give him. He moved out west during college, where he says he experienced the sport on a whole new level.
Now, with 20 years of climbing under his belt, Feinberg is working to bring his hometown the kind of climbing gym he thinks it deserves. Reach Climbing and Fitness is his new project, and while the gym has yet to break ground, Feinberg projects it’ll be open by Fall 2018. The gym is planned as 22,000 square feet of climbing in a building that Feinberg plans to construct from the ground-up. Rather than retrofitting an old warehouse to meet a climbing gym’s needs, Feinberg says that Reach will be custom-built with climbing in mind — which means tall ceilings and tons of open space.
Feinberg says the space will have lots of natural light. Rendering courtesy Reach Climbing and Fitness.
While Philly has seen its own growth of climbing gyms, it seems that the sport itself is on the rise: in 2020, climbers will have the chance to compete in the Olympics for the first time. So in addition to a ton of climbing walls, Reach will also feature an Olympic-sized speed climbing wall, where Philly climbers can challenge themselves to the same event they’ll watch at the Tokyo Olympics.
The gym will be designed with fitness facilities and community space, so members only need one gym membership for all their needs. Rendering courtesy Reach Climbing and Fitness.
The gym will boast 22,000 square feet of climbing space. Rendering courtesy Reach Climbing and Fitness.
Reach Climbing and Fitness will be located at 401 East Fourth Street in Bridgeport. Monthly memberships will be available, which will include access to the climbing walls as well as cardio, weight training, and group fitness spaces.
The gym will be specifically built with high ceilings to accommodate the climbing walls. Rendering courtesy Reach Climbing and Fitness.
“We really think that there’s nothing like this in Philadelphia now,” says Feinberg. “The options for roped climbing in the region now are very small, and we’re hoping to change that.”
Correction: Feinberg moved west during, not after, college.
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