Orangetheory Fitness coming to Walton Boulevard in Bentonville

Orangetheory Fitness, one of the fastest-growing franchises in America last year, is opening a location in Bentonville.

Little Rock-based AR HIIT LLC, an Orangetheory Fitness franchisee, has signed a lease agreement to occupy 3,296 square feet of retail space at 1201 S. Walton Blvd. The space was previously occupied by Bentonville Butcher & Pint restaurant. The business closed in September after negotiations for a new lease agreement were unsuccessful.

The property has been owned since December 2015 by Keith Naples of Texarkana, who paid $3 million for the 19,000-square-foot building. Parachuting Penguins and Rich Products Corp. are other building tenants.

AR HIIT owns seven Orangetheory locations in Arkansas: Little Rock (2), Bryant, Jonesboro, North Little Rock, Fayetteville and Rogers.

Brittany Pitann, AR HITT’s vice president of sales and operations, will open the Bentonville location along with studio manager Shannon McMasters. It’s expected to be open by March 1, 2020.

“We are excited about this location because of how centralized it is to everyone in Bentonville,” Pitann said. “Convenience is key when choosing where you want to work out, and we wanted to be close to home and close to work.”

Pitann said the new space will be larger than other Orangetheory locations. It contains 14 stations, holding up to 42 people at one time. Unique amenities include roll-up glass doors along the front of the building, with Walton Boulevard frontage.

Alan Cole represented the tenant in the commercial lease. Butch Gurganus represented the building owner. Both work for Colliers International in Rogers.

“When we caught wind that the space was going to be available, we had to jump on the opportunity,” Cole said. “Butch and I could not think of a better tenant to take advantage of the location and amenities it provides to the residents of Bentonville and commuters from Centerton.”

Orangetheory Fitness is a Florida-based chain with more than 1,200 owned/franchised studios in 50 states and 22 countries.  It’s one-hour, full-body workout is focused on scientifically-derived, group-based workouts broken into intervals of cardiovascular and strength training.

Orangetheory was named the fastest-growing franchise in America last year by the trade publication Franchise Times. It reported Orangetheory’s sales rose 63.7% in 2017, and its number of units rose 47.4%.

This past August, Los Angeles-based private investment firm St. Cloud Capital announced an investment in AR HIIT. It was an investment out of St. Cloud’s third fund, which has committed capital of $250 million.