Planet Fitness, Urban Air Adventure Park slated to join the Christiana Town Center

Brandon Holveck
The News Journal

A gym and a trampoline park are filling space traditionally reserved for big box retailers in the Christiana Town Center off Del. 273.

Planet Fitness, one of the nation's largest fitness club chains, will take the place of the former Restoration Hardware Outlet. It is expected to open by the end of the year.

Urban Air Adventure Park, an indoor entertainment center featuring a trampoline park, indoor coaster and obstacle courses, will be located in back of the shopping center in the expansion with Buy Buy Baby and the recently opened Club Champion golf store.

It is expected to open in February 2020.

The interior of a Planet Fitness gym.

With many major retailers such as Sears and Kmart struggling, and others like Target and Barnes and Noble targeting smaller locations, gyms and entertainment centers have emerged as a substitute for department stores in strip centers.

Many trampoline parks in Delaware have also filled warehouse space.

Built in 2001, the Christiana Town Center is anchored by Boscov's, Old Navy and Bed Bath & Beyond. Here's more on what's coming soon.

Planet Fitness

The Christiana location will be Planet Fitness' ninth Delaware club and its sixth in New Castle County. Its most recent additions took over spaces previously occupied by Pathmark in New Castle and Best Buy off Kirkwood Highway.

It also has locations at the Riverfront in Wilmington and in the Brookside Shopping Center off Marrows Road.

The former Restoration Hardware Outlet in the Christiana Town Center off Del. 273 will become a Planet Fitness. The club is expected to open by the end of the year.

Prior to becoming an RH Outlet in 2016, the 30,000-square-foot store was home to a DSW Shoes. DSW moved to the Christiana Fashion Center a year prior.

Planet Fitness caters to first-time and casual gym users with its "judgement free atmosphere." (The company intentionally misspells judgment).

Established in 1992, Planet Fitness and its franchisees today operate about 1,400 gyms in the United States, Canada and the Dominican Republic. Memberships start at $10 a month.

The company has opened about 500 new locations in the last three years. It has more than 14 million members.

An Urban Air Adventure Park is coming soon to the expansion in the back of the Christiana Town Center off Del. 273. The trampoline park is expected to open in February 2020.

Urban Air Adventure Park

Urban Air Adventure Park insists it's more than just a trampoline park.

Trampoline parks, those warehouse buildings with trampoline floors and foam diving pits, have quickly moved from the periphery of the entertainment industry to commonplace. As more pop up, the question is can they last?

"We quickly had the vision that it could be faddish," CEO Michael Browning told Amusement Today. "Having one attraction was like owning only one stock in your stock portfolio. You’re not diversified, you’re not well positioned for any type of market changes."

Trampolines will take up about 20% of the more than 30,000-square-foot complex. The rest will be dedicated to the company's innovative attractions including an indoor coaster where riders glide in the air through the facility and tumbling track perfect for aspiring gymnasts. 

There will also be a ropes course, a slam dunk area and the "Urban Warrior Course," modeled after the popular American Ninja Warrior series.

A boy rides the Sky Rider indoor coaster at an existing Urban Air Adventure Park. The coaster is one of many attractions Urban Air Adventure has added to its trampoline parks to diversify.

Other trampoline park brands have joined Urban Air Adventure Park in this direction — adding their own versions of obstacle courses and other attractions. Bouncing on dozens of trampolines alone no longer offers the staying power it once did.

"We have seen the evolution of the trampoline park industry over the years," said Bethany Evans, VP of the International Association of Trampoline Parks. "Parks have been adding additional attractions to compliment their trampolines. We will continue to see parks growing and changing as our industry matures."

The northern Delaware market is already crowded with the Altitude Trampoline Park on Wilmington's Riverfront, Launch Trampoline Park off Elkton Road near Newark and Sky Zone in Glasgow off South College Avenue all providing competition to Urban Air Adventure.

The new facility is also close to Main Event in the Christiana Fashion Center.

A look inside the 30,000 square-foot space that will become Delaware's first Urban Air Adventure Park. The facility is slated to open in February 2020.

The Christiana facility will be Urban Air Adventure's first in Delaware and employ about 60 people. A press release announcing the center also teased expansion to Wilmington, Newark, Middletown and Hockessin.

It takes the majority of the long left vacant space next to Club Champion and Buy Buy Baby in the first expansion to the shopping center. Buy Buy Baby, the first business in the expansion, opened in 2012. 

Marketing materials for the shopping center advertise a second expansion, with an additional strip of retail and two pad sites. The advertised expansion would be larger than 100,000 square feet. 

A timetable for the second expansion has not been made public. Allied Retail Properties, the company that manages the Christiana Town Center, did not respond to a request for comment.

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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com or at (302) 324-2267. Follow on Twitter @holveck_brandon.