A high-intensity fitness studio that’s looking to move into a first-floor space in downtown Naperville is seeing early support on several fronts, including from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
Commissioners unanimously endorsed a request that could clear the way for Barry’s, a boot camp-style gym chain with 90 locations globally, to move into a vacant portion of the Main Street Promenade East at 50 S. Main St.
The space has been unoccupied since the Promenade East opened in 2014, according to a petition from property owner KRG Naperville Main, a subsidiary of Kite Realty Group. It could become the home of the next Barry’s if the Naperville City Council approves a zoning variance to allow a fitness business on the first floor in the downtown core, where such uses are restricted by code to the second floor and above.
Letters in support of the request to allow Barry’s to take over the 4,266-square-foot dormant storefront were submitted by the Downtown Naperville Alliance and Naperville Development Partnership.
“After years of limited leasing success, the opportunity to activate this location with a dynamic brand presents a welcome solution,” Katie Wood, executive director of the Downtown Naperville Alliance, wrote in a letter expressing her group’s support.
Along with its signature “Red Room” workout space, Barry’s also proposes to offer apparel and accessories for sale in “an active, street-facing retail environment,” along with a Fuel Bar selling made-to-order protein shakes and wellness drinks, the property owners’ petition said.
The proposed blend of fitness and sales could be a fit for the site, Monica Conners, president of the Naperville Development Partnership, wrote in a letter to the city. She said experts convened during a downtown-focused workshop last year recommended the city “carefully consider non-retail on first-floor spaces that historically reflect low occupancy.”
“Experts indicated that when another use is allowed, it generates more sales and increases visitor traffic for existing retailers and restaurants,” Conners said. “There would be an upside for downtown Naperville should Barry’s be allowed to occupy space on the first floor.”
But not everyone sees the plan for Barry’s to come into downtown Naperville at the ground level as a positive.
Kristy Gagovski, owner/operator of Pure Barre Naperville — located on the first floor two doors south of the proposed Barry’s space — said she gathered the signatures of more than 160 local residents with concerns that the new fitness studio could negatively affect parking, traffic and congestion.
She also questioned whether Barry’s, which she said comes in at a high price point for its workout classes and memberships, could survive long-term in an area that’s already home to several fitness facilities.
Planning and zoning commissioners said many of Gagovski’s concerns focused more on “the business case” of the proposed Barry’s than on the topics under the panel’s purview, which include land use and zoning.
Her worries about increased traffic and parking issues stemming from one new business didn’t stop those on the panel from voting in support of the potential variance.
“We need to get foot traffic in downtown,” Commissioner Mark Wright said. “I just don’t think the parking issue is enough of an obstacle.”
Commission Chairwoman Whitney Robbins said she thinks Barry’s business plan is “actually very much in line with the spirit” of the downtown core, and several people within her own network likely would be interested in becoming members.
“We have 10-plus years of this (site) being empty, and we don’t have anyone else knocking on our door,” Robbins said. “I look at this as bringing more people in, not pushing people out.”
Marie Wilson is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
