Sports club works out expansion to meet Harlem demand.

The reaction to NYSC's planned October 2007 opening at The Langston--a new 180-unit mixed-use luxury condominium in Harlem's Hamilton Heights--has been so enthusiastic that the sports club has leased an additional 4,000 s/f of space.

When the new 20,000 s/f facility opens, it will become the first major health club above West 125th Street.

"NYSC originally leased 16,000 square feet of space," says Scott Auster, a broker with Ripco Real Estate Corp., who handled the leasing transaction on behalf of the developers, Gotham Organization and The Richman Group. "But the incredible response from the community and residents of the building made it necessary for NYSC to expand to meet the anticipated needs."

NYSC, a division of Town Sports International, will occupy a portion of two floors at The Langston, with its entrance located on the street level of 145th Street, between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and Bradhurst Avenue. The club, which will offer state-of-the-art equipment with audiovisual entertainment, cycling, group exercise classes, personal training, and sauna, took possession in February 2007 and is currently undergoing a build-out in preparation for their opening.

This will be NYSC's second Harlem facility--the first is located in the Harlem USA retail complex on West 125th Street, also developed by Gotham. John Epifanio, Development Manager, handled the lease negotiations for NYSC.

We are very pleased to bring the second NYSC location to Harlem," said Bob Giardina, CEO of NYSC. "This opening reinforces the strength of our unique clustering model, which concentrates clubs in urban centers and suburban locations for commuters and families, making fitness convenient to where our members work and live. We look forward to further expansion of the NYSC banner in Harlem when we open our third location on 115th Street and 5th Avenue Inter this year."

At The Langston, NYSC will join Starbucks, which opened in the spring and Bank of America, which is scheduled to open in October; the club joins other prominent retailers already operating along the West 145th Street corridor such as Pathmark, Duane Reade and Chase.

"With the incredible pace at which people are buying up residential property in Harlem, the demand for new retail services is rising in tandem," says Ripco's Auster, noting that The Langston's homes are almost 90% sold. "We have already seen this happen along West 125th Street, but now with new wave of residential development, the transformation is well underway along the West 145 Street corridor."

Adds David Picket, President of Gotham Organization: "Even when New York City values flattened out overall in the third and fourth quarter of 2006, they were still shooting skyward in this neighborhood and showed no signs of reaching a plateau."

There are 10,000 s/f of retail space remaining at The Langston.