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Oct 15, 2024

Crux Climbing Center expanding in Austin, Houston - Austin Business Journal

Listen to this article 2 min The Austin-based climbing gym reached its peak membership in 2019 right before the pandemic. Now, with about 6,000 members, it's approaching those numbers from five years

Listen to this article 2 min

The Austin-based climbing gym reached its peak membership in 2019 right before the pandemic. Now, with about 6,000 members, it's approaching those numbers from five years ago and seeing rising interest once again, the company says.

Crux Climbing Center is undergoing major changes — adding a new location, relocating one of its existing gyms and expanding outside of the Austin metro.

The Austin-based climbing gym reached its peak membership in 2019, and also doubled sales, right before the pandemic. Now, with about 6,000 members, it's approaching those numbers from five years ago and seeing rising interest once again, said CEO and co-owner Kevin Goradia.

Crux recently opened a new gym at 18817 N. Heatherwilde Blvd. in Pflugerville, complete with a 58-foot climbing wall. It also is relocating its gym on South Congress Avenue to a new location in South Austin, and it has plans to expand to Houston.

“With the Austin economy and the state of housing, a lot of young families have chosen to move north,” Goradia said of the new Pflugerville gym.

He said Crux’s main demographic are people between the ages of 25 and 35.

Crux also wanted to make room for speed climbers who need a 60-foot wall. Finding land that would allow Crux to build 60-feet high within Austin's city limits posed a challenge, so the business looked to the suburbs, said Grace Nicholas, the gym's chief operating officer and co-owner. Speed climbing was a sport featured in the Paris 2024 Olympics. Crux's location in Pflugerville also will have a coffee shop, called Spokesman Coffee, next door.

Goradia and Nicholas bought both the Pflugerville property and the new South Austin site through their limited liability corporation, KVG Investments.

“We wanted to go tall and do a big facility (in Pflugerville), and that requires a lot of capital," Nicholas said. "So it was kind of important for us to be able to dictate how long our runway is to see that return. Putting in a ton of money into a building that you don't own didn't make sense.”

That's a common refrain in Austin, particularly among longtime businesses featured in the Austin Business Journal's Austin Icons series. Owning instead of leasing safeguards businesses from rising rents, as well as from the need to relocate if an owner opts to redevelop a property. In addition, finding retail spaces to lease in Austin is difficult because of high prices and tight availability.

“There's a lot of South Congress businesses that are struggling with their relationship with their landlords, and we're no exception,” Nicholas said. “We made plans a while ago to prepare to be able to provide a better facility for our community, and we can invest a lot in it, and provide just a really awesome gym.”

The new South Austin location,tucked between Slaughter Lane and Congress Avenue at 220 Ralph Ablanedo Drive, is already under construction, according to Goradia. The location won't have Olympic climbing heights, but it will be plenty high with a 50-foot climbing wall. It also will be about 10,000 square feet larger than the current South Congress gym, which will remain open until Dec. 31.

In addition, Goradia said the new location will have retail space for lease, with about 2,500 square feet for a coffee and beer component — which he called a perfect pairing for climbing gyms — as well as another 2,000 square feet for office and retail.

With three locations in Austin, Crux is looking toward Houston next, with plans to open a gym at 3100 Canal St. next year. That's because Goradia anticipates that Austin will become saturated with climbing gyms, and his family also lives in Houston. He also considers Houston underserved with climbing gyms.

“We do have a lot of people traveling from Houston to Austin, and Dallas as well,” Goradia said.

Nicholas said there also could be room to add another gym in Houston because of the city's size and the relative lack of such facilities there now.