Equinox is teaming with co-working operator Industrious to offer furnished office space near the fitness company’s upscale gyms, the latest sign that the office, fitness and hospitality industries are starting to converge.
The first workspace in the partnership is slated to open later this year in a 72-story skyscraper in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, said Industrious’s co-founder and chief executive Jamie Hodari. His firm has 76 office locations in 42 U.S. cities and has raised $142 million in venture funding.
Equinox and Industrious plan to partner in several other major U.S. cities in the future, Mr. Hodari said.
The deal marks the latest effort to combine flexible office space with other services popular among professionals, such as gyms and lodgings, as many embrace more integration between their on- and off-the-clock lives.
Co-working company WeWork Cos. runs a wellness venture and has added short-term rental apartments to some buildings where it offers workspaces, while Paris-based hotel operator Accor SA said last week that it would open office space at its European hotels through its co-working venture WOJO.
The Equinox-Industrious venture also shows how developers are increasingly blurring the lines between office, hotel and apartment buildings. The tower at 35 Hudson Yards, developed by Related Cos. and Oxford Properties Group, aims to offer residents and workers a taste of everything: apartments, hotel rooms, a gym, a restaurant and six floors of office space, along with easy access to a high-end shopping mall next door.
New York developer RXR Realty is pursuing a similar strategy. The firm recently teamed with Airbnb Inc. to offer overnight lodging at a Rockefeller Center office tower in Midtown Manhattan. Last week, RXR said it is joining with WeWork to provide 90,000 square feet of flexible office space in the tower. RXR said it also plans to add a gym, social club, restaurant and concierge service.
“People used to work 9 to 5 and now they work 5 to 9, so there’s this merging of live- and workspace,” said CEO Scott Rechler.
One reason more buildings are now offering all these services is that banks that previously shied away from financing multiuse buildings are coming around, according to Edward W. Walter, CEO of the nonprofit Urban Land Institute.
“Lenders and investors have realized there’s a lot of good things coming out of mixed-use buildings, including a more diversified income stream,” he said.
Mr. Hodari, who co-founded Industrious in 2013, said access to fitness facilities has long been one of his customers’ top requests.
Industrious’s Hudson Yards location will span 44,000 square feet on the building’s eighth and ninth floors. The tower will also include an Equinox gym and the fitness company’s first hotel. The offices will be on different floors than the gym and their entrances will be separate, but Equinox is investing in the workspace’s development and involved in its design. Equinox members and hotel guests will have the opportunity to access it at special rates.