High-end gym Life Time to close International Plaza location in Tampa
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 28, 2023

High-end fitness chain Life Time will close its gym at International Plaza in Tampa after just shy of a decade in the space.

There’s no time frame for the closure, and it will come after the chain renovates and moves into the Harbour Island Athletic Club, a Life Time spokesperson confirmed to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Life Time announced its plans to bring its country club concept to the Harbour Island property in early April.

“There are many details we’re finalizing as we assume operations of the Harbour Island Athletic Club and complete our reopening as Life Time,” Natalie Bushaw, Life Time vice president of communications, wrote in an email. “While I don’t have specific timing to share yet, our plans are to eventually transition out of the International Plaza location.”

The closure potentially leaves International Plaza with a major vacancy to fill; Life Time (NYSE: LTH) has occupied a 55,000-square-foot box on the mall's southern end since 2014. It’s rumored in commercial real estate circles that the mall’s ownership, a partnership of Taubman Centers and Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG), is in discussions with Dick’s Sporting Goods to relocate to the space from WestShore Plaza. WestShore Plaza is just over a mile from International Plaza; both malls are anchors of the Westshore business district.

The Life Time space is significantly smaller than Dick’s current location in Tampa. The retailer occupies an 80,000-square-foot store previously home to Saks Fifth Avenue.

Representatives from the mall ownership and Dick’s Sporting Goods did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday evening.

Life Time’s move — and Dick’s rumored move — show the shortening life cycle of retail real estate. Both Life Time and Dick’s have been in their current spaces in Westshore since 2014. The department and big-box stores that met their demise in the 2010s were closer to 30 years old, and those struggles continue as more consumer spending shifts online. Bed Bath and Beyond, a big-box staple of retail development in the 1990s and into the early aughts, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late April.

Beyond the rise of e-commerce, there’s also been a shift within Tampa Bay’s retail landscape in the last 10 years. Affluent urban neighborhoods, not shopping malls, have become the location of choice for national and regional concepts looking to open in the region.