Finding the Right Tenant Mix to Lift Your Business
30
hen looking for the next place
to open a club, the old real
estate adage location, location,
location may be the most
important one to keep top of mind, but
just as important as where you’re located is
where other retailers are located.
The first step in making sure you
are surrounding yourself with successful
businesses is to take a step back and look at
the market as a whole. Chris Cavolo, COO
with Planet Fitness Growth Partners, is
hard at work on a new location set to open
this summer.
Located in Tullahoma, Tennessee, the
market Cavolo had been eyeing for roughly
three years only had a five-mile population
of about 30,000 – right on the verge of
being too small of a market for a Planet
Fitness®. The saving grace, Cavolo said, was
“I look mainly for as much
big box retail as I can –
good strong grocery or a
Wal-Mart-type anchor.”
— John Clancy
Planet Fitness Midwest franchisee
a university and an air force base.
“The Tullahoma market pulls from so
many other areas, about an eight-county
area, and all of the retailers that were already
present in the market kind of got me
looking at it in the first place,” said Cavolo.
“I started looking
at it, and believe it
or not, the place is
so vibrant we were
battling for a spot.”
Once you’ve
picked a vibrant
market for your next
by Christina Cannon
club, the search for
a perfect spot to build
or lease can commence. In general, the best
rule of thumb is to try to locate near retailers
with a high traffic count. Any retailer that
customers flock to multiple times a week is a
good partner for Planet Fitness to have near
its club or in the same shopping center.
“I look mainly for as much big box
retail as I can – good strong grocery or a
Wal-Mart-type anchor,” said John Clancy,
franchisee with Planet Fitness Midwest.