Why the Gen Z Son of Planet Fitness's Co-Founder Is 'Straight Up Targeting' the Gym Giant

There’s an irony playing out in Dover, New Hampshire. It’s home to the first Planet Fitness location, which opened in 1992 and has since become the top dog in the high-value, low-price (HVLP) segment.

The fitness giant has been on a tear attracting Gen Z fitness consumers, and is already setting its sights on Gen Alpha, a cohort that Planet Fitness CEO Colleen Keating has said is expected to be even more focused on health and well-being.

But Justin Grondahl, a 25-year-old Gen Z-er, is looking to become a competitor.

His upcoming facility, Traene Fitness & Pickleball, sits just 600 yards from the first Planet Fitness at 831 Central Ave, breathing new life into a building that has been unoccupied for more than 30 years and is situated next to a Hannaford Supermarket.

New gym features

Hard to ignore, the 63,000-square-foot gym offers 10 indoor pickleball courts, more than 20,000 feet of fitness equipment outfitted by Life Fitness / Hammer Strength, locker rooms with 3-tier saunas, cold plunges, red light therapy beds and even walls, tanning and massage beds, rooms for megaformer Pilates and circuit classes, a lounge space for members to work or socialize and plans for a peptide and hormone clinic.

To add to the irony, Grondahl isn’t just any young entrepreneur. He’s the son of Planet Fitness co-founder and former CEO Michael Grondahl, who parted ways with the franchise more than a decade ago.

And when asked who Traene is for, the younger Grondahl’s answer is immediate.

“We’re straight up targeting Planet Fitness,” he said of the club, which is aiming for a fall opening.

The location alone makes for an interesting narrative, but it goes deeper than that, as Grondahl won’t just operate his gym 600 yards from Planet Fitness’s original location.

“We actually own the building that they’re in, too,” he said.

The build-out, which Grondahl is overseeing himself down to every detail, represents the chance to course-correct what he’s seen as an issue for nearly ten years: that the fitness industry has stopped innovating and adopted a copy-and-paste model that has grown tired across both HVLP and the luxury space.

“The only things that change in these scenarios are the freaking colors,” he said.

Target demographic

There are also meaningful touches that Grondahl is incorporating into Traene that perhaps speak to his generation — and noticeably ones that few others are doing.

The facility’s water system will filter out chlorine, heavy metals and toxins from every water source in the building, spanning showers, cold plunges and hand-washing sinks. Towels will be 100% cotton, free of microplastics.

“It’s a more expensive thing to do, but nobody’s doing it because of that,” he said. “That’s why we think it’s worth doing it.”

Traene will presell gym memberships, with fitness offerings and most recovery amenities, including three-tiered saunas, in-ground cold plunges and filtered water systems, at $19.99 per month. Memberships with pickleball and group fitness classes will presell at $99.99 per month.

“We’re trying to basically become the new Planet Fitness of the pickleball and class industry,” Grondahl said.

Traene’s primary target demographic is women in the 30+ range, and has ensured that the layout is comfortable for them.

“We have the most well-thought-out equipment layout that there is, because we were essentially thinking of a 35-year-old woman the whole time as we laid this equipment out,” Grondahl said.

To make sure he got it right, he turned to those who knew best and enlisted the help of his girlfriend, sister and mother to guide that portion of the process.

“It wasn’t just a bunch of dudes thinking about it,” he added.

It may come as a surprise that while Grondahl grew up in a digitally native generation, he bristles somewhat at the notion of needing to be entertained 24/7, hoping instead to cultivate human connection within Traene.

What that looks like, he said, is no TVs hanging above cardio equipment, though there will be some in the lounge and pickleball areas.

“It makes you invest in the people around you more and clears your head, because we’re constantly just filled with so much negativity on the news,” he said. “I just don’t really want that in there. You come here and you kind of get a break from all this stuff.”

The community focus doesn’t stop there. Every month, members will have the chance to drive a Traene-wrapped Audi R8 around a racetrack, enjoy a date night that includes $250 cash and a limo, or score tickets to a Bruins or Celtics game.

“We’ll be doing that every month, just to keep the community active and social and rewarding people essentially for being good people throughout our community,” he said.

Founder background

Grondahl once pursued professional golf seriously enough to reach a competitive level, before a severe injury sidelined him for a year and a half and led to deeper reflection on his purpose.

“I still felt like I was supposed to do something else with my life,” he said. “I didn’t feel like professional golf was really it.”

The foundation was already there. He’d been working alongside his father in various capacities since his late teens, trying, as he puts it, to be “a sponge.”

Five-year goals include 100 Traene locations. He’s open to franchising or partnership. He’ll know more once presales begin, he said.

But the numbers aren’t really what drives him, and he’s candid about why.

“I’m very lucky to not be in a situation where I need to do this for money,” he said. “I mean, that’s hopefully a product of this, because it’s a business and it needs to function. But I don’t think many people in my shoes would necessarily do this. It’s just what I want to do.”

What he wants to do, distilled, is prove that a gym can be generous with space, pricing, attention, community and still work as a business. And that perhaps an industry that races to cut costs and sacrifice quality or charges a premium for anything remotely upscale or boutique left an opening that nobody, until now, seemed willing to fulfill.

“When quality goes down, that’s when there’s, quite frankly, opportunity,” he said. “And there’s a lot of opportunity right now, and people might not think it or see it.”

“I’m excited to be able to have this opportunity and hopefully change the fitness industry,” he added.