August 27, 2009 · · archive: txp/article

Vertical World Coming to Downtown Tacoma

An eagle eyed reader spotted a sign in the window of a vacant storefront at South 24th and A Street … A few emails later and we’ve confirmed that Vertical World, the rock gym pioneer, is coming to Tacoma.

Vertical World opened the country’s first climbing gym in Seattle in 1987, and Tacoma will be the latest addition to their family. Their location – in the old Action Furniture space – will have nearly 5000 square feet of world class climbing terrain. The building will house a bouldering gym as well as their wall building shop and climbing panel production facility. The shop will be a relocation of their existing facility in Seattle that builds walls and ships panels nationwide.

Ryan Spence, Vertical World’s wall designer and builder, is a Tacoma resident and is proud to be building a significant space in our downtown. He’s particularly excited by this location due to its proximity to the Link and the future waterfront park at the end of the Foss.

The company hopes to have the gym open by mid-October. More details to come.

More information at VerticalWorld.com and VerticalWorldWalls.com

Filed under: tacoma-business

5 comments

  • Nick August 28, 2009

    That’s awesome! I actually noticed the sign in the window when I passed by today and was wondering if something cool was going in there. This is very exciting!

  • Morgan August 28, 2009

    This is awesome news! Thank you Ryan!

  • Thorax O'Tool August 28, 2009

    The shop will be a relocation of their existing facility in Seattle

    Wait… did we just “poach” a business from Seattle?

    Either way, that big gym will be AWESOME. I can’t wait to get climbing!

  • Andrew August 28, 2009

    AWESOME! Great news during these tough times!

  • uoaaa181 September 2, 2009

    woohoo!!!! i love edgeworks but this is so much closer to home! it means walking there rather than riding the bus! hopefully they keep the membership prices affordable…