New Sandy Springs fitness club allows for workouts near your workplace
Many office cliches and sayings relate to exercise.
It’s common to “hit the ground running” and “embrace the struggle” while making sure to “go the extra mile.” Just make sure to “pull your weight” and “don’t drop the ball.”
The overlap between workplace and workout mindsets is not accidental, and it’s something fitness clubs around metro Atlanta see as an important relationship — and a critical source of clientele.
Life Time Fitness in August opened its ninth Atlanta area location in the Concourse at Landmark Center in Sandy Springs, a campus defined by the recognizable King and Queen buildings. Life Time leadership said it’s a layup to locate a fitness center near populated workplace centers, especially as the return-to-office movement gains momentum.
“We are an amenity, but the campus itself is an amenity for everyone that operates here as well,” said John Kukkonen, club leader at Life Time Perimeter.
On-site gyms are common in many of Atlanta’s office buildings. For those without dedicated workout space, large corporate campuses like the King and Queen’s Concourse often have an athletic club nearby.
Before Life Time’s new center at 8 Concourse Parkway, the site was the longtime home of the Concourse Athletic Club, which served a similar niche. Life Time’s development arm acquired the property for $13.6 million in November 2023, planning to overhaul the shuttered athletic club into a modern Life Time location.
The process was more extensive than Kukkonen initially expected, especially since some aspects of the 35-year-old Concourse Athletic Club building’s design hadn’t stood the test of time. Outdated aspects of luxury like carpeted locker rooms are no more.
“The building itself, which is such a unique shape — that was kept intact,” he said. “Most everything on the inside got a complete face-lift.”
The newly opened, 79,000-square-foot Life Time Perimeter is designed to appeal to all types of workout and athletic enthusiasts. The three-story club boasts an indoor and outdoor pool, dedicated spaces for classes like yoga and Pilates alongside courts for squash, tennis and pickleball. The Atlanta Athletic Club’s central basketball courts are now an expansive floor filled with exercise machines and weights.
Coworking space is also a new fixture at some Life Time locations, proving a coffee shoplike atmosphere to answer emails or type memos between workouts. Monthly memberships are advertised at $279.
While services like these are designed to appeal to office workers, office operators say proximity to athletic clubs, restaurants and other amenities is vital to staying competitive.
“Today’s tenants expect more than just office space — they’re looking for environments that enhance well-being, productivity and a sense of community,” said Carl Kuehner III, chair of Building and Land Technology, which oversees Concourse at Landmark Center. “In a competitive market, these amenities not only attract and retain top talent but also signal to employees that their well-being is a priority, making the workplace worth the commute.”
Kukkonen said customers come in clear waves, often surging before and after typical office work hours. He said there’s a cluster of lunch-hour devotees who take their workplace break by breaking a sweat in the pool.
“In the middle of the day, we get so many office executives and office workers coming in to swim laps,” he said.
THE WATER COOLER
This column has been adapted from the September edition of The Water Cooler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s LinkedIn newsletter about the office market and the workplace. Keep up with the latest insider commercial real estate news by subscribing on the AJC’s LinkedIn page.
About the Author
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
