We are excited to announce that First Ascent Uptown is expanding!
If you’ve been wondering about the brown paper covered windows at 4718 N Broadway, wonder no more: First Ascent Uptown will take over half of the first floor space, which will become the new home of our fitness and training area.
The expansion will also allow us to offer indoor bike parking with room for 30 bikes. 
The current fitness area upstairs will be transformed into social and coworking space.
Our Uptown location opened in December 2015, just 4 months after our first location, First Ascent Avondale. First Ascent Uptown is an adaptive reuse of the historic landmark building where Broadway meets Racine in Uptown across from the Riviera Theater.The flatiron-style building opened in 1915 as Sheridan Trust & Savings Bank and has changed hands many times over the years.
Prior to First Ascent Uptown, Borders Books inhabited the entire building before shutting its doors in a 2011 company-wide bankruptcy.
When First Ascent Uptown moved into the building in 2015, the project stirred curiosity and excitement from the Uptown neighborhood – curiosity because indoor climbing and bouldering were relatively unheard of in the city, and excitement because of the new energy First Ascent would bring to this iconic corner in Uptown. After 3 years in business, First Ascent has seen tremendous growth in indoor climbing and bouldering, fueling First Ascent’s expansion into the first floor space. With First Ascent’s expansion as well as the recent opening of the Huntington Bank in the corner space, the building is one big step closer to being fully occupied again.
FA co-founder and CFO Joe Zentmyer had this to say about the expansion: “We are very excited for this project! The additional space will allow us to more than double both the fitness area and the social space at FA Uptown, and it will enable us to offer coworking space and indoor bike parking, two things our members have been requesting since we opened.”
And FA co-founder and Business Development Director Jon Shepard added: “As First Ascent grows, we strive to continue investing into our gyms and communities. FA Uptown is not only the neighborhood bouldering gym but also one of Uptown’s key fitness destinations. This expansion will make the fitness area at First Ascent Uptown the largest and most well-equipped of any of our locations. We’re excited to keep investing into FA Uptown, both for the neighborhood and for the fitness and wellbeing of our members.”
We aim to have the new space open by November 1, 2018. In the meantime, please pardon our dust as we bring you new spaces to explore and new amenities to enjoy!
To stay up to date on the FA Uptown expansion project, follow First Ascent Uptown on Facebook.
Blog