A national fitness chain wants to plant its flag in Millburn, and the shopping center it has in mind is 175 parking spaces short of what town code would technically require. Stronger Together LLC, doing business as Burn Boot Camp, has filed for preliminary and final major site plan approval to convert vacant space at the Millburn Shopping Center into an approximately 3,400-square-foot studio offering instructor-led group training and wellness programs.
The application targets 720 Morris Turnpike, a multi-tenant commercial property with retail, office and other uses, according to NJ.com. The space previously housed YB Fitness, a health and fitness club, per Millburn Township Planning Board minutes from a 2023 hearing involving the same shopping center. Under township code, Burn Boot Camp would be classified as an instructional school or studio, a category that carries its own parking math.
Why the Parking Numbers Don't Add Up
The shopping center's lot holds 283 spaces, but it already operates under a nonconforming parking condition, NJ.com reports. The prior fitness tenant required one parking space per 200 square feet, while township code demands one space per 100 square feet for an instructional school or studio. Swapping in Burn Boot Camp would push the property's total parking requirement to 458 spaces, according to the outlet's report, forcing the applicant to seek a parking variance along with a variance tied to an installation detailed in the filing.
This isn't the first time a fitness-related tenant at this address has run into Millburn's parking rules. The 2023 Planning Board minutes describing a change of use for Aqua Tots and Gold Medal found a calculated requirement of 608 spaces against the 283 spaces on site, creating what the board described as a 160-space deficiency the applicant needed relief for. Attorney John P. Wyciskala of Inglesino Taylor in Parsippany represents the applicant in the current Burn Boot Camp matter, the same firm identified in NJ.com's coverage of the filing.
A Hearing Set for Early November
The Millburn Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing on the application for 7:30 p.m. on November 4 at the Millburn Board of Education Center building, located at 434 Millburn Ave. Members of the public may attend, ask questions, cross-examine witnesses and offer testimony or comments, according to the public notice posted online by the Millburn Township Planning Board.
Millburn's zoning framework for the broader corridor leans toward encouraging adaptive reuse of existing buildings, a goal laid out in Ordinance 2775-26 governing the Main Street–Community Zone, which permits instructional schools and studios under 3,000 square feet as principal uses while treating larger ones as conditional uses.
A Chain on an Aggressive Growth Tear
The Millburn filing lands as Burn Boot Camp pushes hard on national expansion. The franchise signed 51 new franchise agreements and opened 36 locations in 2025, with more than 60 percent of those new agreements coming from existing franchisees, according to Club Solutions Magazine. The brand's franchise network is made up of more than 80 percent female owners, and its 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document reported a systemwide average EBITDA of $114,000, the trade publication noted.
Club Solutions Magazine also reports that Burn Boot Camp has set a goal of opening 100 new gyms in 2026 and plans to increase outreach to multi-unit and multi-brand operators in the health and wellness space. A Millburn location would mark the chain's push into Essex County, giving the township a tangible look at that national growth strategy playing out on a local shopping-center parking lot.
Millburn's broader commercial market has been active, too. The township counted almost 100 commercial listings for lease totaling about 78,121 square feet as of 2026, according to PropertyShark, with that inventory data last updated October 7. Whether the Burn Boot Camp proposal clears its parking hurdle will depend on what the Planning Board decides at next week's hearing.
