By Dan Murphy
A sprawling luxury gym proposed for the Prudential Center intends to seek a wine, malt, and cordials license from the city for its private café and lounge.
The Back Bay outpost of Minnesota-based Life Time Club, which is scheduled to open this fall, would span nearly 60,000 square feet in the retail spaces formerly occupied by Boston Sports Club and Barnes & Noble, said Attorney Jon Aieta during the monthly meeting of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) Licensing and Building Use Committee held virtually on Monday, April 7.
The facility’s proposed daily hours of operation would be from 4 a.m., which is “in line with other locations,” according to Aieta, until midnight. The gym would likely close most nights by 10 or 11 p.m., however, said Aieta, but the applicant still wants to have the option of extended hours for special events.
The private second-floor café and lounge at Huntington Avenue and Belvidere Street would be open members and their guests, offering seating for 65. (The overall capacity for the gym has still yet to be determined though, said Aieta.)
The lounge is intended as an added amenity for members, who currently pay a regular $299 fee each month at the Chestnut Hill location.
“By no means will this be a bar scene,” said Aieta, adding that other Life Time locations, including the one at Chestnut Hill, are already operating on-site lounges, and without any issues.
(In all, Life Time Club currently has 170 locations across the U.S. and in Canada.)
The applicant would be seeking an 8 a.m. license for wine, malt, and cordials from the city, but Aieta said first call for alcoholic beverages would likely be around noon in the lounge.
The license would also apply for pop-up events that could take place in studios and other parts of the gym, he said, while signage would instruct guests to keep alcoholic beverages within designated areas. Trained staff would patrol areas where alcohol is served as well.
“We typically don’t do public events, unless it’s leading up to a grand opening,” added Aieta.
Food offerings in the lounge would be prepared on site and likely include shakes; healthy, pre-made meals, such as a chicken broccoli, and rice dish; different egg dishes; and Acia bowls, said Kyle Hollander, the proposed manager of record for the Back Bay gym who currently works at the Chestnut Hill location.
Entertainment in the lounge would be limited to background music and TVs, said Aieta, with a deejay on hand for the occasional special event.
The gym’s trash removal would be handled internally via the Prudential Center, said Aieta, who added that the applicant plans to file its plans with the city’s Licensing Board “in the next week or so.”
In another matter, the committee heard about plans for a to-go ice cream shop now under construction at the street level of the Lyrik project ((formerly Parcel 12), located at the corner of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue.
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream’s shop in the Back Bay, which is expected to open in June, would offer no seating for customers but have a public restroom, said Daniel Brennan, a consultant for the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based chain. The proposed daily hours of operation are 11 a.m. to midnight.
Deliveries would be made to the business once a week, said Brennan, and the business has an internal trash compactor.
Brennan said the applicant has yet to file its plans with the city’s Licensing Board and is “now just working on the neighborhood process.”
Conrad Armstrong, committee chair, told both applicants he would inform them of NABB’s position on their respective proposals (i.e. to oppose or not oppose) at the end of the week.