Santa Ana / Central Orange County
The fitness users we could confirm take very different real estate: 24 Hour Fitness inside MainPlace Mall, LA Fitness in a suite on East 17th Street near Tustin Avenue, Goldfish Swim School in an 8,400 sq ft pad at Bristol Plaza, and Sender One's climbing gym on Village Way. Santa Ana's code is friendly to fitness in retail space, because gymnasiums and commercial studios are permitted by right in C1, C2 and C4, and a suite under 2,500 sq ft can switch from retail to a gym or studio without adding parking. Larger clubs should look at anchor or pad space where the activity-floor parking ratio (1 per 180 sq ft) can be met, such as MainPlace or the South Bristol centers.
Population
312,534
Median HHI
$93,999
Median age
34.7
Homeownership
44.6%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates.
Primary retail corridors
Bristol Street · Main Street · 17th Street · First Street · MacArthur Boulevard · Harbor Boulevard · Edinger Avenue
Specific shopping centers in Santa Ana that already carry credible co-tenancy for this use. Listed in approximate order of fit.
2800 North Main Street
Anchors / key tenants: Macy's, JCPenney, 24 Hour Fitness, Picture Show Theater
Size: 1,100,000 SF
Three-story super-regional center with 150 tenants including H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret, Kay Jewelers, LensCrafters, and Boudin SF. Recent additions: Bella Plant, Weiman Shoes, Pro Image Sports, Kabob Co., MINISO, and Mi Casa Oaxaca. Anchors the city's regional shopper traffic.
Bristol Street at MacArthur Boulevard
Anchors / key tenants: high-visibility neighborhood retail mix
Brixmor-owned center with 40k+ vehicles per day on Bristol and 35k+ on MacArthur. Heavy daily-needs and value-tier daypart.
Existing operators are the most honest comp for whether a use can support Santa Ana rents. These are publicly visible fitness space businesses currently trading in the market.
24 Hour Fitness (MainPlace Mall)
MainPlace Mall, 2800 N. Main Street, Santa Ana, CA 92705
Listed on the mall's own store directory with 24/7 hours. A big-box club inside a regional mall, sharing the property with Macy's, JCPenney, Round1 Bowling & Arcade and Ashley HomeStore per the same directory.
LA Fitness Santa Ana - 17th St
1945 E. 17th Street, Suite Unit 103, Santa Ana, CA 92705
The only Santa Ana club on LA Fitness's own club list. On East 17th Street near Tustin Avenue, the same stretch as PetSmart (2140 E. 17th) and the Coffee Bean (2264 17th Street).
Goldfish Swim School (Bristol Plaza)
3301-3361 S. Bristol Street (pad FS1), Santa Ana, CA 92707
On Brixmor's Bristol Plaza tenant list in pad FS1 at 8,400 sq ft, a freestanding kids' swim school in a Trader Joe's-anchored center. A good example of an instruction use taking a pad building instead of inline space.
Sender One SNA (climbing gym)
1441 Village Way, Santa Ana, CA 92705
Sender One's own site calls Santa Ana its original location. A climbing gym located outside the city's named retail centers.
01
Use: Santa Ana Municipal Code Section 41-365(k) permits gymnasiums and Section 41-365(o) permits schools and studios operated for commercial or public purposes in C1, and Sections 41-377(a) and 41-412 carry both into C2 and C4. C5 permits gymnasiums and health clubs (Section 41-424(k)) and C-SM permits gymnasiums, health clubs and martial arts studios (Section 41-521(e)). Other indoor or outdoor recreation and entertainment uses need a conditional use permit (Section 41-365.5(b)), so ask Planning which bucket a trampoline, climbing or ninja concept falls into.
02
Parking: exercise gyms, spas and health clubs are parked at 1 space per 180 sq ft of floor area used for physical activity, not counting locker rooms, showers, utility rooms and lobby areas (Section 41-1375). Martial arts, gymnastics and dance studios with no food or drink service are 1 per 200 sq ft of gross floor area (Section 41-1375.5). A 10,000 sq ft club with 7,000 sq ft of workout floor needs about 39 stalls. Uses the Planning Director cannot fit elsewhere default to 2 per 1,000 sq ft with a 20-space minimum (Section 41-1380).
03
Small studios: under Section 41-1309.1(2), a tenant space under 2,500 sq ft can change among retail, service, restaurant and "gymnasiums and studios operated for commercial or public purposes" without adding parking, if the prior use had a valid business license and certificate of occupancy. That makes 1,500 to 2,400 sq ft boutique studios much easier to open in Santa Ana strip centers than larger boxes.
04
Outdoor training: Section 41-366(a)(3) lets recreational or entertainment uses operate outside an enclosed building in C1 to the extent they are permitted, but everything else must stay indoors. If your program uses the parking lot or a patio for sled pushes or boot camp classes, get that written into the approval and the lease.
05
Recovery and massage: a massage area inside a gym is an ancillary massage establishment if it takes no more than 25% of the floor area used for the gym's health or athletic activities (Section 41-1751(h)), and it can go wherever gyms are allowed (Section 41-1752(b)), but it still needs a certificate of occupancy, a business license and a massage establishment permit from the chief of police (Section 41-1753(a)). A stand-alone massage business needs a CUP and 1,000-foot and 500-foot separations (Section 41-1752(c)).
06
Large facilities with seating: stadiums, skating rinks, gymnasiums and similar places of public assembly are parked at 1 space per 4 fixed seats plus 1 per 28 sq ft of assembly area and must provide a passenger loading zone (Section 41-1373). A kids' gym or court facility that holds events should confirm with Planning that it will be parked under Section 41-1375, not 41-1373.
Zoning, licensing, and demographic figures on this page come from the public records below. Codes and licenses change, so confirm with the city and the licensing agency before you sign.