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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Brooklyn Boulders Bringing Climbing Gym and Healthy Offices to Queensbridge

BKB Queensbridge
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YouTube/Brooklyn Boulders

QUEENSBRIDGE — Popular rock climbing gym Brooklyn Boulders is set to open a 25,000-square-foot facility in Long Island City this summer, the company announced Thursday — making it the second massive climbing gym to open in the neighborhood in recent years.

BKB Queensbridge will be located at 23-10 41st Ave. and will serve as both a climbing gym and a community center, offering fitness programs as well as work spaces with pull-up bars, an art gallery and a cafe, according to a press release.

The location is a short distance from another massive climbing gym, The Cliffs LIC, which opened at 11-11 44th Dr. in 2013. But Brooklyn Boulders rep Cyrena Lee said they consider the gym a friend and not a competitor, and that they are "working to serve the community and to grow the sport of climbing."

"We've been looking at Long Island City since 2010 — ­ we bet on this area a long time ago and are really excited to see it growing as fast as it is," Brooklyn Boulders co­-founder Lance Pinn said in a statement announcing the new site.

According to the announcement, BKB Queensbridge will boast a variety of climbing spaces as well as a weight room, yoga studio and saunas. Members will be able to take climbing lessons, plus fitness classes like capoeira and obstacle race training.

The location will also offer youth programs and event spaces, lounges, a cafe and an art gallery, its owners said.

There will also be co-working spaces, called "Active Collaborative Workspaces," that will have stand-up desks, conference tables and pull-up bars "intended to foster ideation and collaboration in unconventional ways."

"At BKBQB we want to provide a new type of community space that offers progressive climbing and fitness experiences but also offer a social space to foster new ideas and experiences," the gym's head of marketing, Andrew Ching, said in a statement.

Sign-ups are currently being offered for tours of the new facility, according to its website. Membership options and prices will be announced in May, and a pre-sale for membership will open on May 10.

The gym is the fourth location for Brooklyn Boulders, which opened its Gowanus space in 2009 and also has sites in Boston and Chicago. The company announced Wednesday that it would open a location in Philadelphia, but the news turned out to be an April Fools' prank.

A spokeswoman confirmed to DNAinfo that the announcement of a Queensbridge location is not a gag.