Hello everyone! I'm Jon Fraser and I am the owner of Starting Strength Chicago. The following thread will be the forum's home for discussion of the upcoming Chicago location. I will keep this thread posted with updates on our progress going forward. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have as well.
I work in the financial industry and had been looking for a couple years for business ownership opportunities. Luckily, I was familiar with Starting Strength and knew of the Program, the results that it offers, and the culture surrounding Starting Strength, so I knew that it would be a good fit. I will be aggressively pressing forward from here to make Starting Strength Chicago a highly successful gym both financially and in terms of getting people strong.
I am very excited to be starting this venture and I hope to see as many of you as I can when we open!
We are deep in the location search and have begun talks with landlords.
Our social media accounts are up at @startingstrengthchicago on Instagram, @chicagostarting on Twitter, and on Facebook as Starting Strength Chicago. So anyone interested can check us out there.
I've been making strides with getting what needs to be done squared away, and we should have some Starting Strength Chicago apparel available soon.
I will be providing more updates as the visibility of timelines increases in the coming weeks. It's a very exciting time, and I think we are poised to build a great institution here. Many thanks to Rip and the Starting Strength Community!
I am looking forward to Starting Strength Chicago, Ravenswood/Lincoln Square is also great neighborhood, between two El stops and the Metra. There are two cross-fit gyms, boutique gym and LA Fitness in the neighborhood already.
Thanks suncraig. We are still in the site selection process, and we are branching out our search in terms of neighborhoods to get the best possible location. Will keep you updated!
Hey all, I hope you are doing well with all the craziness going on lately. While a lot of things have slowed down in terms of general activity and other Starting Strength Gyms have had government mandated closures, we are still working to make Starting Strength Chicago happen.
We have done a preliminary site inspection and are continuing negotiations on basic lease terms at one location. At the same time, we are keeping our eyes open for new spaces that may be coming on the market in the coming weeks due to the pandemic. Staying on top of both of these will give us the best launchpad for a successful location.
Additionally, our online store is open. You can go there through this link: Starting Strength Chicago. Check out our t-shirts and stickers.
The broader economy may have slowed down, but I am pleased to announce we have submitted a letter of intent on our prospective Lakeview location. From here we will work to get our lease and staff in place prior to opening. After we put the coronavirus ordeals behind us, which I think is starting to happen for now, I think we will be in a very opportunity-rich market. I'll keep everyone posted on further developments!
It's been a long time coming. We have faced a lot of adversity in getting Chicago's first Starting Strength Gym off the ground. Everything from a global pandemic, lockdowns, landlord negotiations, building code issues, having to restart our real estate search, yours truly having to work a day job that is really more of a day-and-night job, and that is just start.
I wanted to start getting everyone up to speed on our progress. We have selected a location in Roscoe Village in the northern neighborhoods of Chicago. We are coming to the end of the negotiations with the landlord there, have completed construction documents, and begun GC selection. I'm hoping I can share our location to everyone on the forum, mailing list, and social media very soon.
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