Grocery-anchored shopping centers are the hottest asset class for retail investors, thanks to their resistance to the Internet. As a result and for the same reason, grocery tenants have become one of the most sought-after anchor tenants by landlords—but recently fitness centers have rapidly grown in popularity. It makes sense. Fitness centers also have a resistance to the Internet and attract users several times a week, and they use roughly the same amount of square footage as grocery stores. The similarities have made fitness centers a popular alternative to grocery stores.

“Fitness has become a very positive tenant for centers. Like grocery, customers visit a fitness center multiple times a week,” Mark Baziak, senior managing director at Newmark Knight Frank, tells GlobeSt.com. “What is changing is that, unlike the old days where was a concern that people would work out and not shop, people are now wearing fashionable wear to workout, and they don't feel as un-presentable. We are starting to see more cross shopping with that anchor. We are also seeing that through the recession, fitness centers continued to expand and get stronger, and they were one of very few tenants that did that during the recession.”

The sizing similarities are particularly appealing to landlords, especially because fitness centers can often require more square footage. For landlords looking to fill larger boxes, this can be a good fit. “They tend to range is size from a 15,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet, and some go even larger,” says Baziak. “So, a lot of those larger spaces can be absorbed by a fitness user.”

While fitness centers have increased in popularity for their ability to check the daily needs box and large sizing requirements, grocery tenants remain the most sought-after anchor tenant for a neighborhood center, according to Baziak. “The preferable anchor always has been and still is the right grocery store for a neighborhood shopping center,” he says. So, they likely aren't going to replace grocery tenants any time soon.

One reason that fitness centers are still second choice is that the co-tenancy options are much more limited. Today, research shows that fitness centers are more likely to shop post workout, but the options for neighboring tenants are still broader with a grocery store. “You are still going to cater to a broader co-tenancy with a grocery store,” says Baziak. “The people shopping in a grocery store seem to shop a wider range of uses. I do think that there are still users of a fitness center that go just to workout or that are nutrition oriented. Those users may shop and frequent those kinds of ancillary uses, but not necessarily as wide a range as a grocery co-tenancy would attract.”