A California-based wellness franchise is set to open its first Houston studio on Sept. 12, bringing cryotherapy chambers, IV drip bars and infrared saunas to a shopping center near Tanglewood and the Galleria. Pause Studio will occupy a 2,750-square-foot space at 1395 S. Voss Road, and the first 100 guests through the door will get a complimentary glutathione shot as part of the opening celebration.
According to Community Impact, the studio markets itself as a one-stop destination for total-body wellness, with a menu that includes whole-body cryotherapy, contrast cold plunge therapy, compression therapy, LED light therapies, float technology and IV therapies. Memberships run on a credit system, with packages ranging from six credits per month up to 50 credits per month. The glutathione shots being given away at the opening are typically marketed to support skin brightening, detoxification and immune health, per the same report.
The Houston studio is being brought to town by local franchise operator Evan Allen, who told The Beauty Boost that she turned to holistic wellness and natural remedies in her late twenties while managing an autoimmune thyroiditis diagnosis and anxiety. Allen said the corporate franchise model gave her the creative freedom and flexibility to balance running the business with raising her two daughters. She told Community Impact that “Pause Studio is redefining one-stop wellness for today's demanding lifestyle,” adding that the brand “created a space where individuals can prioritize healing and experience meaningful transformation.”
Inside an Affluent Retail Corridor
The studio is landing inside Woodway Collection, a 96,655-square-foot grocery-anchored shopping center anchored by a Whole Foods Market, according to property manager First Washington Realty. The surrounding one-mile trade area boasts an average household income of $157,633, a demographic profile that lines up with the kind of high-end recovery services increasingly clustering in wealthier Houston submarkets. Public permit filings reviewed by Zabalist show the interior buildout at 1395 South Voss Road, Space 18, spans 2,748 square feet with an estimated construction cost of $672,000, converting the retail shell into eight private treatment rooms.
Pause Studio was co-founded in 2016 in Venice, California, by former Equinox executives Jeff Ono and John Klein, according to the International Franchise Professionals Group. The company secured $3 million in Series A funding in 2022 to pivot from corporate-owned studios into a nationwide franchise model, and by 2026 had awarded more than 100 franchise units while expanding toward 35 open storefronts. Hoodline previously reported that Pause Studio proposed a 2,474-square-foot location in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood, a project the city's Planning Commission unanimously approved that November.
New State Rules Govern IV Therapy
The Houston opening arrives as Texas tightens oversight of exactly the kind of IV drip services Pause Studio offers. Under Texas House Bill 3749, known as Jenifer's Law, elective IV therapy delivered outside hospitals or doctor's offices can now only be administered under physician supervision by licensed physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice registered nurses or registered nurses, according to law firm Polsinelli. The law, effective since September 2025, bars delegation of IV administration to unlicensed staff and was enacted in response to a 2023 fatality at an unregulated Texas medical spa.
A companion regulation, Texas Medical Board Rule 169.28, took effect in January 2025 and requires IV hydration clinics and med spas to post signage in every treatment room listing the supervising physician's name, medical license number and complaint-filing instructions, according to Spakinect. The rule is meant to enforce medical accountability and prevent unsupervised remote medical directing at storefront wellness businesses like Pause Studio.
Federal Warnings on Cryotherapy and Injectables
Federal regulators have also flagged safety concerns tied to two of the modalities featured in Pause Studio's service menu. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that whole-body cryotherapy devices have not been cleared or approved to treat any medical condition and carry risks including frostbite, burns and asphyxiation, even as wellness centers market the extreme cold treatments for muscle inflammation. Pause Studio describes its own cryotherapy room as using extremely cold temperatures to reduce muscle pain and inflammation, per Community Impact's report.
Separately, the FDA published voluntary nationwide recalls in August for compounded injectable glutathione from compounding pharmacies after lab testing found elevated bacterial endotoxins capable of causing severe fevers, allergic reactions or septic shock. Compounded vitamin injections, including the glutathione shots Pause Studio plans to give away to its first 100 opening-day guests, are not FDA-approved drugs.
Part of a Booming National Trend
The Houston debut fits into a wellness spending boom that shows no signs of slowing. The Global Wellness Institute reported that U.S. consumer spending on wellness reached $2.1 trillion in 2024, averaging $6,293 per person and accounting for 7.33% of national GDP, with the U.S. holding the largest market share in nine of eleven wellness sectors. Globally, the wellness economy hit a record $6.8 trillion in 2024 and is projected to reach $9.8 trillion by 2029.
That growth has been visible across Houston's retail landscape in recent months. Hoodline recently reported on Club Studio's $5.5 million River Oaks buildout, part of a wave of high-end, multi-modality fitness and recovery concepts targeting affluent neighborhoods like River Oaks and Tanglewood. More information on Pause Studio's Houston opening and membership options is available at pausestudio.com.
