A Carytown barre fitness brand is opening a second studio. Photo courtesy of Barre Boutique.
A local niche fitness startup is leaping over to the Southside for its second location in two years.
Katie Gilstrap plans to open a new Barre Boutique studio later this year at The Shoppes at Bellgrade in Midlothian.
Barre Boutique offers fitness classes in which participants work out and stretch with support from a ballet bar.
Gilstrap said the lack of other barre studios in the area made it an attractive move.
“The city and the West End are becoming more saturated, and we felt like there was a great opportunity there,” Gilstrap said of the Southside. “We have a fair amount of clients that come to us from the area.”
The business leased a 2,300-square-foot space for the new location, more than three times the size of Barre Boutique’s original studio at 2820-C W. Cary St. in Carytown. Gilstrap said she plans to use the extra space for a reception area, expanded retail and bigger class sizes.
Barre Boutique is the second barre fitness brand to add a second location. Corner Barre, which started with its first space in Short Pump in 2011, expanded to 13827 Village Place Drive in Midlothian about a year ago. It’s about four miles away from the Barre Boutique space.
Pure Barre, which is a franchise, has two locations from the same owner in the Richmond market – one in Short Pump and one in the West End.
Gilstrap said she’ll look to her staff to give Barre Boutique a competitive edge.
“What makes us different is that all of our instructors have a background in professional dance,” she said.
Gilstrap, who is a full-time marketing professor at VCU, said two of her instructors dance with the Richmond Ballet and one teaches there.
The Carytown Barre Boutique has seven instructors and typically offers five 60-minute classes each day. Drop-in classes cost $15, and a year of unlimited classes costs $100 a month.
Gilstrap, 36, would not say what it will cost to open her second location in what was previously an interior design store. She did say she is financing the expansion herself.
A Carytown barre fitness brand is opening a second studio. Photo courtesy of Barre Boutique.
A local niche fitness startup is leaping over to the Southside for its second location in two years.
Katie Gilstrap plans to open a new Barre Boutique studio later this year at The Shoppes at Bellgrade in Midlothian.
Barre Boutique offers fitness classes in which participants work out and stretch with support from a ballet bar.
Gilstrap said the lack of other barre studios in the area made it an attractive move.
“The city and the West End are becoming more saturated, and we felt like there was a great opportunity there,” Gilstrap said of the Southside. “We have a fair amount of clients that come to us from the area.”
The business leased a 2,300-square-foot space for the new location, more than three times the size of Barre Boutique’s original studio at 2820-C W. Cary St. in Carytown. Gilstrap said she plans to use the extra space for a reception area, expanded retail and bigger class sizes.
Barre Boutique is the second barre fitness brand to add a second location. Corner Barre, which started with its first space in Short Pump in 2011, expanded to 13827 Village Place Drive in Midlothian about a year ago. It’s about four miles away from the Barre Boutique space.
Pure Barre, which is a franchise, has two locations from the same owner in the Richmond market – one in Short Pump and one in the West End.
Gilstrap said she’ll look to her staff to give Barre Boutique a competitive edge.
“What makes us different is that all of our instructors have a background in professional dance,” she said.
Gilstrap, who is a full-time marketing professor at VCU, said two of her instructors dance with the Richmond Ballet and one teaches there.
The Carytown Barre Boutique has seven instructors and typically offers five 60-minute classes each day. Drop-in classes cost $15, and a year of unlimited classes costs $100 a month.
Gilstrap, 36, would not say what it will cost to open her second location in what was previously an interior design store. She did say she is financing the expansion herself.