Mission Valley's 24 Hour Fitness makeover
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When there's fake turf you know it's fancy. Photo: 24 Hour Fitness
This is not your dad's 24 Hour Fitness.
The big picture: The gym in the Mission Valley mall has gone through a major expansion and upgrade in hopes of reaching fitness fanatics who want more than treadmills and weights.
- It's part of a larger growth in fitness and well-being businesses in San Diego to meet a rising demand for community exercise spaces.
State of play: The biggest changes include:
🏋️ More space. The club added about 8,000 square feet, bringing it to 30,000 square feet.
🧖 New recovery amenities. Members can use red-light saunas, massage chairs and leg-recovery boots after their workouts.
🥶 Chill without a plunge. New "polar beds," which are like wraparound cooling chairs, let members stay dressed but still feel like they're submerged in 48 degrees.
Between the lines: It's all because of the new focus on health and longevity, not just burning calories and losing weight, 24 Hour Fitness cofounder Mark Mastrov told Axios.
- And those people also want a community space, which a gym provides, he said.
- "In the last two years the gym industry's exploded," he said. "More people are exercising now than ever in history."
Zoom out: Carlsbad-based 24 Hour Fitness is bringing these makeovers to 100 other clubs nationwide, including others in the region, he said.
- UTC, El Cajon and Balboa were recently remodeled, also with new equipment, recovery amenities and refreshed interiors.
- "It's like a home you've lived in for 20 or 30 years. It starts to get tired," Mastrov said. "It's like my wife coming to me saying, 'I want to redo my kitchen. I want to bring in some new furniture.' It's the same thing in our industry. You've got to renovate and modernize your facilities."
And more growth is underway. The company now has 250 locations and is opening new gyms and making acquisitions, he said.
By the numbers: San Diego gyms are stronger than ever this year, Carter Russ, CEO of retail sales tracking firm CenterCheck, told Axios. His firm doesn't have specific data on 24 Hour Fitness, but said spending at gyms grew 27% in 2024 and 16% in 2025.
- Lower-cost gyms outperformed boutique studios.
- For example, revenue tripled at EoS Fitness on Sports Arena Boulevard and rose 65% at Chuze on Camino del Rio South, but Orangetheory in Hazard Center and Point Loma fell by more than 30% and Club Pilates fell by 27%.
Younger people are a growing share of gym rats, Russ said. San Diego gymgoers ages 18 to 24 increased almost 11% this year, he said.
Flashback: It took several years to recover from the hit gyms took during COVID, and these renovations are part of that, Mastrov said.
- "When you're shut, your members try to find places to exercise at home or in the park, which is great, but you lose member base, you lose revenue, and then your landlords have their hands out," he said. "Now we're six years out from COVID, but we still feel the ramifications from it."
Context: The gym fix-up coincides with other upgrades coming to the Mission Valley mall, which now goes by The Valley.
- That includes new stores, a mall face-lift and a new Dick's House of Sport, which combines sporting goods sales with a rock climbing wall, golf bay and running area.