The Well Reinvents Itself to Capture the Wellness Real Estate Boom

The Well is trading standalone clubs for integrated communities where consumers can live, work, and prioritize their health.

The wellness operator is tapping into consumers' desires to build their entire lifestyles around wellness, not just pop in and out of clinics for occasional treatments. This includes where they sleep, work, shop for groceries, move their bodies, and take care of their minds.

"When we started The Well, the question we wanted to answer was, 'What if your health could have one address?'" co-founder and chief creative officer Kane Sarhan told Athletech News.

The brand is gearing up to open its Bay Harbor Islands destination in the Miami area in December, introducing an integrated approach to wellness to South Florida. This will bring preventive healthcare, movement, recovery, and connection to where people live and work.

The 450,000-square foot property will house 65 private residences, over 100,000 square feet of office and lobby space, a premier wellness and longevity club, a bathhouse, and select treatments and wellness experiences available to residents, members, and day guests.

Residences range from $1.3 million to $6 million, while membership costs $590/month with a $750 initiation fee. Sarhan wants to offer people everything under one roof, with the service of five-star hospitality, a full high-end fitness floor, the social component of a Soho House, and wellness offerings of a club like The Well.

"When someone's living with us every day, or someone's working with us every day, just the opportunity we have to infuse wellness into their life and to help them prioritize their wellness just becomes exponentially greater," he said.

The team was inspired by people who would walk into their New York location and say, "We want to live here." "That sort of put the seed in our mind of maybe there's something more interesting here," he said.

Changing the Business Model

The Well is no longer building standalone clubs, Sarhan said, as the brand is shifting its business model so that all locations moving forward will have some residential, workplace, or additional real estate component, with a strong focus on the booming South Florida fitness and wellness market.

One of the biggest shifts in The Well's new evolution is how the brand is building out its fitness segment, Sarhan pointed out, as each new location will have a fully equipped fitness floor, rather than just offering workout classes as it did previously.

Additionally, The Well is invigorating its wellness offerings, with expanded functional medicine and longevity services, including HRT, TRT, peptides, and more. While the brand has long been a pioneer in wellness, that ideology used to be more niche, Sarhan said. Not anymore, as longevity and holistic health care become more mainstream.

At its new residential property, The Well is integrating an exclusive partnership with Miami-based preventive and longevity medicine practice The Maximum Life, overseen by Dr. Frank Lipman, who will serve as chief medical officer of both the clinic and The Well Bay Harbor Islands.

As the brand doubles down on wellness offerings, the longevity hub will provide biomarker screenings, VO2 max testing, individualized health recommendations, and its own Health Optimization Program. While this specific partnership is currently exclusive to Bay Harbor Islands, the brand revealed that Lipman's involvement will continue at future locations.

"Our brand really has so much breadth, and people don't just want to come to us for a massage or a facial or yoga class, but when people say 'I want to live with you' or 'I want to put my office here,' it's just such a vote of confidence," Sarhan said. "We've been capitalizing on that opportunity."

The evolution is a signal of a broader shift in the industry, as wellness real estate continues to take off, projected to double and hit $1.8 trillion by 2030. It's not just about health-oriented amenities anymore, as developers are increasingly investing in communities that fully integrate wellness into everyday life.

The Well plans to do so, too. The Well Bay Harbor Islands will be limited to fewer than 1,000 members, who will have access to movement classes, personal training, and restorative experiences, including a bathhouse with a caldarium, cold therapy, and other recovery offerings.

As for expansion, The Well is looking to build out its South Florida footprint and make its return to New York before entering new markets, Sarhan said. The Well replied with the following statement in response to why it shut down its NYC location: "The decision to close this location follows a series of facility challenges we were ultimately unable to resolve to our standards and reflects a broader evolution of The Well as a company. We have grown from a single club concept into a platform for integrated wellness communities — places where people live, work, and connect with their wellbeing as the foundation."

"The Well Bay Harbor Islands is the first expression of that vision, and there is much more to come," the operator added.