An empty fitness club with treadmills facing floor-to-ceiling windows over the harbor, illustrating the Life Time Commonwealth Pier club.

Life Time Commonwealth Pier Club: 45,000 Sq. Ft. in Seaport

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Life Time has leased about 45,000 square feet at Commonwealth Pier in Boston’s Seaport for a new athletic club next to Fidelity Investments’ headquarters, with an opening planned for late 2027. The Life Time Commonwealth Pier club is expected to employ around 150 people, and the Boston Globe revisited the deal in its Oct. 12 business column.

The Life Time Commonwealth Pier Deal at a Glance

  • Size: about 45,000 square feet, leased from Pembroke, the real estate investment affiliate of Fidelity Investments.
  • Dates: the Boston Business Journal reported the plans Oct. 2; Life Time announced them Oct. 6; the club is set to open in late 2027. The lease length and end date were not disclosed.
  • Jobs: around 150 full- and part-time workers, with 30 to 40 on site at any time, according to the Globe.
  • Price: Life Time expects Boston memberships to cost $369 a month, the Globe reported.
  • Footprint: it will be Life Time’s eighth club in Greater Boston since the company arrived in 2015.

What Life Time Is Building on the Pier

Life Time, the Minnesota-based fitness chain listed on the New York Stock Exchange, described the project in its Oct. 6 announcement as an athletic club and “social wellness destination” overlooking Boston Harbor. Commonwealth Pier opened in 1913 and was home for decades to the Seaport World Trade Center before Pembroke redeveloped it into offices, retail, dining, a waterfront plaza and a rebuilt Harborwalk, according to the company’s release.

Parham Javaheri, Life Time’s head of real estate, told the Globe that the company had wanted a Seaport location for a long time and that talks with Pembroke ran about a year. The club will not have a pool. “Any building that’s built on stilts over the ocean will give you a challenge or two,” Javaheri told the Globe. Boston Business Watch, summarizing the Globe’s report, said most of the club will sit on the third level with an entrance on Seaport Boulevard.

Members will be able to use Life Time’s nearly 200 clubs in the U.S. and Toronto, the Globe reported. Pembroke sees the gym as an amenity for Fidelity employees, Javaheri said, but it will be open to the public.

Why the Seaport Lease Matters

The deal adds a consumer business to a pier built around one large employer. WBUR reported in September that Fidelity brought its Boston workforce back to the office full time as it moved into its new Commonwealth Pier headquarters.

It also lands during a mixed stretch for Boston commercial real estate. Our recent reporting found downtown office vacancy near 18.5 percent in the third quarter, even as top-tier office rents hit records as law firms trade up. The Globe reported on Oct. 7 that Amazon is subleasing a Seaport office building.

Life Time has grown steadily in the region. According to Boston Business Watch, it opened its first local club at Westwood Station in 2015 and its first Boston location at the Prudential Center in 2025. Javaheri told the Globe the company has four or five more sites under active consideration but did not say where.

Analysis: Our Take

This section is opinion and analysis, separate from the reporting above.

The Commonwealth Pier lease reads as a bet on the premium end of the Seaport. At an expected $369 a month, the club is aimed at higher-income professionals, and having Fidelity next door gives it a built-in base that many new gyms would envy. That makes it a lower-risk move than the vacancy numbers alone might suggest.

The bigger signal is for landlords. Converting part of a waterfront office property into experience-driven space, with dining, retail and now a large fitness club, is one way owners are trying to make offices worth the commute. If the club fills its memberships after it opens in 2027, expect more Boston landlords to chase similar tenants. If it struggles, it will be a reminder that amenities cannot replace office demand.

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