Next month, bodyFi, a fitness studio specializing in personal training and group classes, will move from its current FiDi space at 425 Washington St. to a brand-new Jackson Square home at 735 Montgomery St., Suite 109.
As we reported back in April, the new 735 Montgomery development is aiming to revitalize a strip of Jackson Street by offering ground-floor retail spaces with street views. bodyFi is the first tenant to move into one of the four newly created spaces, which feature both a prime street-level storefront and lower-level space.
BodyFi's new location.
bodyFi offers training sessions by appointment, as well as classes geared to working professionals who hope to squeeze in a quick workout at lunch or after business hours. "This is a convenient way to get fit before they go home," said bodyFi owner John Nguyen.
Nguyen, who used to work in tech product marketing, started working as a personal trainer because it fit with his schedule when he went back to school to study computer science. In 2010, he started offering outdoor group fitness classes in Sue Bierman Park on the Embarcadero and Dolores Park in the Mission. He opened the first bodyFi in the FiDi in January 2011; in 2013, he opened a second location in the Mission, at 2310 Mission St.
The studio offers more than 100 classes each week, including TRX and strength circuits, and it specializes in 30-minute workouts. Everything can be booked online, and prices vary depending on the class or session. Regulars can also purchase a class bundle or a monthly membership.
Though bodyFi is only moving two blocks away, the new space is bigger: it has about 4,000 square feet to the original's 3,700. That will allow Nguyen to expand capacity for Pilates classes to 10 people (currently 6-8) and add a shower or two, along with more lockers. There will be more space for personal training, and the 14-foot ceilings in the new space make it feel larger.
Nguyen thinks being on the ground floor, with more visibility and foot traffic, will boost business. The current location of bodyFi, which is on the second floor, used to be office space. Nguyen said he and his team did the best they could in terms of retrofitting it to become studios, but at the new space, "we get to start from scratch and configure it the way we want it," he said.
