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After spending a decade trying to get the first location off the ground, Stone Climbing Co-founder Eric Hires is moving more quickly on the second one.
Hires and co-founder John Thousand opened their first gym at 115 Strongway Court in St. Augustine in 2021 and expect to open a Jacksonville location in spring 2025.
The partners acquired a piece of land near the Southeast Regional Library off Deerwood Park Boulevard, where they will build a 15,500-square-foot facility.
While there are other climbing gyms in Jacksonville, Hires told the Business Journal that none of the other places offers exactly the type of modern climbing experience Stone does.
Meanwhile, other big chains like Central Rock Gym have been moving into Florida.
"So it's kind of like, if we don't do it, someone else is going to do it in the next two years," he said. "So we wanted to go ahead and expand into Jacksonville."
Hires said Jacksonville is a relatively underserved market and thinks the location will be right with the University of North Florida and the St. Johns Town Center both close.
That's why he and Thousand decided to embark on the project, which will cost about $6 million to develop. That's about twice what it took to get the St. Augustine facility built.
With the Jacksonville location, they're dealing with inflation, a more expensive real estate purchase and a larger gym.
Hires is working with architect Conner Dowling of Open City Architecture to create the new facility. And while he said he is generally happy with the St. Augustine gym, the Jacksonville location won't be a copy.
Dowling said he and his family are already fans of Stone and that it's a huge advantage for Hires and Thousand to be building a second gym so soon. The market hasn't changed much, and they can work on tweaks to make the Jacksonville gym optimal.
One of the differences will be getting even more natural light and outside views incorporated into the design.
"It's just the next evolution, naturally," Dowling said. "I think the connection to the outdoors ... is important. Eric and I talked about that being something we can do better in the new building."
The site will also be different because the St. Augustine location is tucked back away from any main road and wedged in with other businesses. The Jacksonville gym will be a standalone building with associated parking and fronting a busy street.
"We have an opportunity with this property to have much more visibility with people driving by," Dowling said. "The new gym is going to have this large glass wall facing the street that you'll be able to see, really, all the way 170 feet through the building, this climbing wall."
Having some curb appeal will help draw people in for an activity that is still gaining popularity in a state without many natural climbing opportunities.
"It looks to me like a museum," Hires said. "You see it and you want to go inside."
Beyond aesthetics, the Jacksonville gym will have a rope climbing wall that is 50 feet — about 17 feet higher than in St. Augustine. There will be a larger climbing area and a "top-out area" for bouldering.
It will have a dedicated recovery center with sauna and cold bath, a bigger fitness area, a members lounge, and a physical therapy practice, which Stone also has in St. Augustine.
Hires said opening a second location will also add value to gym memberships, which account for about half the total revenue.
Overall, Hires said it's satisfying to see the business grow from an idea he had as a Flagler College student more than 15 years ago into something sustainable.
"Climbing truly creates community," Hires said. "The cool thing about this business is it's a net positive. You're helping people get stronger, stay healthier, stay fitter, have better relationships. All those things are very positive outcomes."
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