NYC’s oldest climbing gym to close after 34 years and be replaced by a $200-an-hour tennis simulator

Photograph: Courtesy of Manhattan Plaza Health Club

After more than three decades, New York’s oldest climbing gym is about to hit the ground. Manhattan Plaza Health Club has announced that its climbing gym on West 43rd Street will close this Wednesday, September 30. The club says the wall will operate normally through its final day.

What happens to the space next is less certain: one climber on Reddit claims it will become a virtual tennis simulator costing $200 an hour, though the club and its owner, Related Companies, have not publicly confirmed either the replacement or the price. The prospect has struck members as particularly strange because the complex already has five rooftop tennis courts. 

The climbing gym opened in 1992 and covers 5,000 square feet, with routes changed weekly. Its advertised membership costs $49 a month, a price that has helped make it a fixture for climbers who cannot (or simply do not want to) pay substantially more elsewhere. Members also point to free climbing for women on Fridays and youth programs that use the wall.

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For regulars, losing the gym means also losing the people they see between climbs. On Reddit, one member wrote that the community had been an anchor through five years of change and that they had even chosen where to live partly to stay near it. A petition to keep the gym open has drawn thousands of signatures and supporters rallied outside the club on Saturday, September 26.

MPHC’s closure announcement expresses regret but does not explain the decision. In a public response to an online review, the club said the climbing space would need a complete renovation to remain open and would still be too small to compete with newer, larger gyms. Campaigners are asking Related and club management to reconsider, or at least delay the closure until December 31 so another operator could be explored.

For now, climbers have until Wednesday to get in one last route.

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