Cityrock set to open in December

Climbers rejoice: Downtown Colorado Springs is about to get a rock climbing gym.

Joe and Lara Groshong, current owners of the Rock Climbing Center in Monument, are bringing their five years of experience running a climbing gym to the corner of Nevada Avenue and Kiowa Street. The gym, called CityRock, is set to open in mid-December.

The couple said they’d been looking to start a gym downtown for years now; when they saw a for sale sign in April on the building, once the home of the Ute Theater and an antique shop, they knew they’d stumbled across something that could work.

In a mountain town like Colorado Springs, you’d think a climbing gym downtown would have happened a long time ago, but according to Lara, it’s more difficult than you’d think to find an appropriate space.

“It’s really restricted by real estate,” Lara said. “There’s very few properties that meet the requirements. You need 35 to 40 feet of height. You need space and a decent location.”

With nearly 11,000 square feet of climbing space and a spot in the heart of downtown, the building fit the bill. The building is 17,000 square feet in all and will also house a CrossFit gym (a group exercise program) and offices for an organization called Lifequest, which does high end personal training.

Lara, a former pentathlete in Fort Carson’s World Class Athlete unit, said, “We want to be an outdoor and physical fitness community center. Right now CrossFit is in the front of the building, but eventually they’ll move and we’ll turn the front area into a café lounge meeting space. The idea is, folks can show up and have coffee and plan their mountain bike ride or climb or whatever they want to do.”

The couple is even taking a cue from the building’s previous life as a theater, with plans to paint scenes and characters from classic science fiction movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still on the climbing wall itself.
“We’re wanting to do something with bright colors instead of painting it to look like actual rocks,” Joe said. “Where we live, the real mountains are right outside.”

Lara said she had hopes that eventually the climbing wall could be made even taller by opening up the ceiling and extending the wall above the roof. Climbers would be able to finish their climb with a pretty stunning view of downtown Colorado Springs.

In addition to the 45-foot-tall climbing wall at the back of the building, there will also be a 14-foot-tall, 70-foot-long bouldering wall near the front, which will have an homage to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Joe said it will also have some “tasteful graffiti.”