Apex moving parkour gym from Loveland to Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS – The Apex Movement parkour gym in Loveland is closing its doors and moving to Fort Collins at the end of the month.

Movement Ascent LLC, doing business as Apex Movement Fort Collins, recently leased 2,354 square feet of warehouse space at 2649 E. Mulberry St. Co-owner Justin Clark said the gym’s last day in Loveland will be Sept. 28, with a planned opening day of Oct. 5 in Fort Collins.

Clark opened the Loveland gym a year ago with his brother, Jesse, and their friend Travis Lee. The original idea was to expand with a second gym in Fort Collins.

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“But we quickly found out we just didn’t have the manpower to handle two gyms,” Justin Clark said, noting the difficulty in finding parkour instructors.

Parkour, a word derived from a French style of military obstacle-course training called “parcours du combatant,” is a training discipline in which people move quickly through a given environment, using only their bodies to propel themselves over and around obstacles in a fluid, efficient manner.

Clark said he and his partners had some connections in Loveland who were able to help them get up and running, but that the trio always had its eyes on Fort Collins. He said they decided to move to the active community now before another gym beat them to the punch.

“We also knew we could grow faster in Fort Collins,” Clark said. “If we feel Loveland needs its own gym (in the future), we’ll come back and open up two locations.”

Clark said the Loveland gym has maintained about 60 members. The new gym will be slightly larger than the gym in Loveland. Clark said eventually the plan is to build out some permanent obstacles, but that will require extra permitting from the city. For now, the owners will move in gymnastic mats and floors and moveable wood objects.

Memberships at the gym will cost $80 per month, and include parkour and other supplementary classes in addition to gym access.

The owners license the Apex Movement name from Boulder-based Apex Movement LLC. Ryan Ford, who founded the company, is responsible for getting the owners, who grew up in Johnstown, into the sport. Justin Clark went to college at Colorado State, but he and Jesse also taught classes at the Boulder Apex gym before deciding to open their own.

Along with Lee, the two brothers are the only full-time employees, though they’re training a pair of interns who they hope can help man a second gym someday. In addition to Loveland, Clark said the owners have kicked around the idea of opening in Windsor, Greeley or Wyoming.

“We’re not quite sure where the next one will be, but we definitely want to open up more than one location,” he said.

Randy Marshall of Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial represented landlord Roy Martin in Apex’s Fort Collins lease deal. Michelle Hickey-Crawford of Re/Max Alliance represented Apex.