The Portland Rock Gym coming to Beaverton's Peterkort Towne Square will offer a variety of bouldering walls for climbers. 

An incoming climbing gym is looking to elevate business in Beaverton.

Portland Rock Gym is opening a new location in Cedar Mill’s Peterkort Towne Square, taking the place of the former Orchard Supply Hardware.

Once construction is fully complete, the gym will be the largest in the country at 64,000 square feet, according to the gym’s administrators.

“It’ll be the largest in the country for its footprint, or the actual size of the building, and it will be somewhere between third and second for climbing surface,” said Nickolas Gagliardi, the rock gym’s director of route setting.

Portland Rock Gym opened its Portland facility in 1988, making it the second rock-climbing gym in the United States. Just like the original location, the Beaverton facility will offer spaces for climbing, yoga and other fitness activities.

Construction for the project will happen in two phases: one set to be completed by September 2023 and the other scheduled to finish by spring 2024.

The first wave will introduce 28,000 square feet, which will feature multiple walls for bouldering, or free climbing without ropes or harnesses. Alongside multiple 14-foot walls, there will be a 12-foot wall oriented for beginner climbers.

Gagliardi said the smaller wall will be used by the gym’s Recreation and Development team, and it will also be close to a conference room available for parties.

“Whether you’re a new climber or a kid, this will be more tailored for the first-time climber,” Gagliardi said.

For gym-goers who are interested in different types of climbs, the facility will include two MoonBoards, which focus on interactive training through lit-up routes, as well as a spray wall that will be filled with holds — those colorful plastic grips — to try out different challenges.

According to Gagliardi, an exciting inclusion will be a wall replicating the one being used for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

“We’ll have access to all those angles before the Olympics, which would be pretty neat,” he said.

In addition to other amenities, the gym will feature two yoga studios, a retail area to purchase gear and an open workout space including lift stations and machines.

The second wave of construction will see both horizontal and vertical expansions, including a 60-foot development to make room for a 55-foot wall for rope climbing. Additionally, the new construction will bring locker rooms, showers, more space for bouldering and a speed wall certified by the International Federation of Sport Climbing. This means that climbers are eligible to set world records at the facility.

In terms of business the gym could bring to the area, surrounding establishments are looking forward to the development.

Scott Collins, owner of Sunrise Bagels in Peterkort Towne Square, said the gym will help bring customers to Cedar Mill. Knowing the popularity of the gym in Portland, he is expecting the new facility to bring more people that could dine at his business — which will be moving across the street to make room for a new Starbucks in the fall.

“That brings a good deal of traffic into the mall here, and our proximity to that is going to be essentially right outside their front door,” he said. “I would love nothing more than to be their favorite dining place.”

Also next door to the rock gym, plans are underway to convert the former Albertson’s grocery store in the Peterkort Towne Square into two smaller storefronts, in addition to a covered outdoor eating area.

Portland Rock Gym planning on hosting a variety of competitions for the upcoming year, and Gagliardi said owners are expecting people to travel across the country to check out the facility.

“At the root of it all is the goal to bring people together,” according to Matt Jackson, the sales manager for the rock gym.

“Our mission is fundamentally just to get people not only climbing in the gym but climbing outdoors,” Jackson said. “So we have lots of groups that get to come in, utilize the gym and just kind of have that safe space not only to meet up but also just have an activity.”

The gym is still waiting on approval from the fire marshal to announce an official opening date, but Portland Rock Gym anticipates hosting its grand opening the second week of October, Gagliardi said.