A decade ago, Jim Potesta bought the franchise rights for Orangetheory Fitness in Southwest Florida. Since then, he steadily has expanded to five locations, doubling the size of a North Naples studio and recently opening his newest studio in Estero.
The North Naples location, 7935 Airport-Pulling Road, recently expanded from 2,200 to 4,200 square feet, and the location at the Estero Commons shopping center off Corkscrew Road opened in late March.
“It’s our goal to eventually put one more here in Naples,” said Potesta, who owns 59 of the chain’s 1,400 locations. His stores are in Southwest Florida – Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Estero and two in Collier County – suburban Houston and Seattle.
The larger North Naples location grew from 12 to 17 workout stations, meaning it now can accommodate 34 instead of just 24 people per class.
Classes begin at 5 a.m. daily, and monthly memberships start at $79.
Orangetheory bills itself as personal training in a group environment. In-house coaches teach and motivate members in each class. Members have their heart rates monitored during workouts with the idea, Potesta and regional fitness manager Lindsay Norris said, being to get people exercising at 84% to 91% of their ideal maximum heart rate.
“This is where the most calories are burned,” Potesta said.
That said, no one would be given more than they could handle, Norris said.
“They’re as intense as you want them to be,” she said of the classes. “There are always going to be peaks and valleys. There’s an opportunity to really push your limits, but they’re all scalable to your ability level.”
Orangetheory also has taken off during an era of many retail stores closing because of online shopping trends, opening more opportunities for the chain to expand, Potesta said.
“We struggled with the larger landlords,” Potesta said of the earlier years. “They would say, ‘Oh, we don’t know what you are. You’re not going to make it.’ So, we went to the smaller, individual, locally owned landlords. They were very embracing, saying, ‘Yeah, we’d love to try something different.’ And as the evolution of retail has happened, you’re seeing more and more fitness places take over the spaces of retail, and the landlords love having them in there.
“If you haven’t tried Orangetheory, you need to get in and try Orangetheory. It’s for every level of fitness. And it covers every age bracket. In this particular market, we’ll have members from 20-something all the way up to their 70s. It’s really a great sense of community.”
