Short Pump Fitness Studios: Why National Brands Start Here

Richmond BizSense reported that Pvolve was opening a studio at the Colonnades West Shopping Center on West Broad Street, in a space between PGA Tour Superstore and Ross Dress for Less. Until recently, that space held offices. By the end of September, it holds Pilates reformers, resistance bands and a studio full of people doing 50-minute workouts they can't get anywhere else in Richmond yet.

The business is Pvolve, a low-impact fitness franchise built around classes that blend Pilates, physical therapy and resistance training. It's opening its first studio in the entire Richmond market, and it chose a strip center in Short Pump to do it. That choice isn't random, and it isn't the first time a fitness brand has picked this stretch of West Broad before picking anywhere else in the region. Once you notice the pattern, it changes how you read every new "coming soon" sign along this corridor.

What's Moving Into the Old Office Space

The Pvolve studio belongs to Vikas Kapila, a Richmond resident since the late 1990s who also runs the Creative World School franchise currently under construction in Henrico's Twin Hickory area. Looking for a fitness concept that hadn't yet reached Richmond, Kapila landed on Pvolve, a New York City-based company founded by Rachel Katzman in 2017 that now runs about 50 studios across the U.S. and Canada. Before this one, the only other Virginia location was in Tysons.

The Short Pump studio takes over 1,800 square feet that was previously office space, not retail, inside the Colonnades West Shopping Center at 10941 W. Broad St. Founding memberships run $139 to $179 per month, with a $15 credit toward a preview class for anyone who wants to try it first. Kapila has said he picked this location for the area's foot traffic and its central position in the West End, sitting his new studio directly between two anchors that already pull steady weekend crowds.

This Isn't Short Pump's First Rodeo

Richmond BizSense reported that Short Pump was the first Richmond-area location for another national stretch-and-recovery brand, StretchLab.

StretchLab's assisted-stretching practitioners are called "flexologists" and work with clients by hand rather than with machines. Its Short Pump location opened roughly two and a half years before its Carytown location was announced in January 2026. Franchisees Puneet Manaktala and Ritesh Pandey opened a second location in Midlothian before that announcement.

The timeline puts Short Pump first in StretchLab's Richmond-area rollout.

The Corridor Fills In Around Them

Neither Pvolve nor StretchLab is opening into a fitness vacuum. Walk the same few miles of West Broad and you'll already find solidcore near the intersection of Maltby Boulevard and Hayden Park Lane, tucked next to Lidl, Wong's Tacos and Red Salt Chophouse and Sushi. Orangetheory runs a studio at 11819 W. Broad St. Burn Boot Camp has a Short Pump location among its Richmond-area sites, and ACAC Fitness & Wellness anchors the other end of the spectrum with a full-service club model built around pools and childcare rather than 45-minute class blocks.

That range is the point. A resident who wants a resort-style club with a pool and a resident who wants to be in and out of a 45-minute reformer class can both stay inside the same few blocks of Short Pump without driving toward Willow Lawn or the Fan. Few pockets of the Richmond region offer that same split between big-box, full-service gyms and boutique, appointment-style studios sitting this close together.

Retail Growth Along the Corridor

Fitness studios aren't the only new arrivals along this corridor. Lululemon is expanding its footprint at Short Pump Town Center, Loft is relocating within the same mall, and incoming tenants include Alo Yoga, Vuori and boot retailer Tecovas, according to reporting from Richmond BizSense. A few minutes away, Nordstrom Rack is set to open at the Westpark Shopping Center, taking over a 30,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Painted Tree Boutiques. It's a smaller echo of Nordstrom's own history here: the full-line department store operated at Short Pump Town Center until it closed in 2020, and now its discount sibling is coming back to the same general stretch of road under different terms.

Together, these openings and planned arrivals add to the corridor's mix of fitness and retail options.

What This Actually Looks Like This Fall

If you already belong to a gym, none of this changes your membership. What it does change is the shape of your options every time you drive past this stretch of West Broad. The office next to the golf shop is now a Pilates studio. The strip mall near Lidl already has a reformer studio tucked into it. The mall down the road is about to carry three new brands at once.

For anyone curious enough to try one of the new spots, the Pvolve founding membership window is open right now at introductory pricing, and the $15 preview credit is a low-cost way to see whether the format fits before committing to a monthly rate. For everyone else, the more durable fact is this: StretchLab opened its first Richmond-area location in Short Pump, and Pvolve is opening its first there now. That's not a small distinction for a suburb this size, and it's worth watching for what shows up next.

If you're weighing what a neighborhood like this means for your own move, whether it's the amenities filling in around you or the value they add to daily life here, Moving For Good can walk you through what's changing in Short Pump and what it's worth to you.