STERLING, VA-The Washington, DC metro market is about to get its first LA Fitness sports clubs. The Irvine, CA-based chain has leased spaces here and Silver Spring, MD totaling 93,000 sf.

The fitness center company relied on David Ward, Marc Katz, Geoffrey Mackler and Richard Rotner of H&R Retail to secure the leases. In Sterling, LA Fitness committed to a 45,000-sf space at Dulles Town Center Mall, a 1.2-million-sf regional shopping center within a 554-acre mixed-use campus under development by Lerner Enterprises. Lerner represented itself.

The fitness firm signed on for 50,000 sf at 8616 Cameron St. in Silver Spring. Owned by Atlantic Realty, the property was once a bowling alley and will now be solely occupied by LA Fitness. Shari Thur & Associates, which had been marketing the building for a price in the "high-teens" per sf, represented Atlantic Realty.

With regard to H&R's search for additional locations to house LA Fitness facilities, the retail brokerage firm expects to ultimately secure about 10 to 20 spaces of about 45,000 to 50,000 sf. In the Washington, DC metro area, H&R is on the hunt for spaces that could be located at mini-malls, regional shopping centers, retrofitted properties or stand-alone sites.

"We're looking at neighborhoods with good, strong residential demographics," Ward tells GlobeSt.com. "We can work with any of those types of centers in areas that have a high concentration of educated populations that think health is important."