Flywheel Sports, a New York City-based high energy “Stadium Cycling” studio, has confirmed it is moving into the former Blockbuster property at 147 N Larchmont Boulevard. Work began on the property today with a demo crew pulling down ceiling tiles and removing floor coverings to renovate the space.
According to Rene Weitzer in Councilman Tom La Bonge’s office (CD4), Flywheel Sports applied for and received approval on permits to operate on the ground level of the space on Larchmont Blvd.
It is the first Los Angeles venture for the company, which operates six spinning studios in NY and the Hamptons, as well as other major cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle and Miami Beach. Spinning enthusiasts often debate the rivalry between two popular brands: SoulCycle, which already operates in Brentwood and West Hollywood, and Flywheel, the newcomer to the west coast.
Flywheel offers a high-tech competitive version of your regular cycling class, with each bike custom-engineered to record your “torq”, speed and power output. The bikes are all connected to a large screen “Torqboard” in the class that allows riders, should they choose to be competitive that day, to see their results ranked against other riders in the class. It also logs the rider’s stats on a web program to compare performance and target goals for an individual. Flywheel is also known for its music – utilizing up-to-date new music playlists to keep its crowd stoked, and happy .
The presence of a new type of storefront business on Larchmont, one that brings both energy and exercise right to us at street level, will no doubt make some delighted and others recoil. Larchmont needs to reinvent and reinvigorate its mix of retail to keep businesses on the block thriving, and Flywheel may be the first test of this more vibrant streetscape.
Larchmont Buzz: Flywheel Considering Blockbuster Location on Larchmont
Great someone’s moving in. That space has been vacant for years now.