On a thoroughly miserable midafternoon before the season”™s first big storm, the two-thirds-full Chelsea Piers parking lot in Stamford seems an amazement, enough so it draws a comment upon meeting Mollie Marcoux, executive director of the 400,000-square-foot facility.
“Stick around an hour,” she said. “It should be full.” And she was right.
In the hour while Marcoux toured the athletic mecca in a former Clairol facility that opened July 2012, an army of weather-defying, mostly young clients poured in ”” the after-school crowd. Peak hours are 4 to 8 p.m. weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday; a total “thousands per week” file in, according to Marcoux.
Later this month, the center broadens its already-substantial, sweat-soaked corporate outreach in the early morning slot, far from the madding after-school crowd. Companies already roughhouse via teams in hockey, soccer, lacrosse, basketball and volleyball as part of Chelsea Piers leagues in those sports. This winter the thok-thok of the well-struck tennis ball fills the air, availing corporate tennis players of a bold opportunity to attack the competition mano-a-mano without attracting a lawsuit.
Tennis is among Chelsea Piers”™ more popular activities, with hockey ice time also in top demand. As such, it is hoped a push for morning tennis, when the courts are in less demand, should synch well with the business clarion call of efficiency.
“Arrive, play tennis, take a shower in our great locker rooms and get to work on time,” Marcoux said.
The 7 to 9 a.m. corporate tennis league will allow for individuals to rotate on and off the company squad, broadening participation and not overly taxing those who want to play, if not carry the entire load. “The administration is with Chelsea Piers,” Marcoux said.
Administration extends to the playing arena, as well. “Our staff is always on time,” Marcoux said and always pursuing the ultimate goal of “clean, safe, friendly fun.” Game clocks and refs are part of the equation.
Companies also use the center for events ”” there is a bar-restaurant called Top of the Game on the mezzanine level along with the Just Sprouted health-themed cafe next door. Chelsea Piers”™ event catering is done by Manhattan-based Great Performances, whose client list includes Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Experiential learning has found both Chelsea Piers and its corporate offerings. The center”™s director of events ”” “Lauren McCourt, she came here from Chelsea Piers New York City” ”” customizes company gatherings that span nonathletic to athletic, low-impact team-building exercises to basketball tournaments. “And they might feature dinner in the restaurant or a social aspect afterward; you don”™t have to leave,” said Marcoux, who has 18 years experience with Chelsea Piers. She said the twin facilities ”” the original dating to 1995 on Manhattan”™s West Side ”” attract a similar audience that is both athletic and family-minded.
Sweating and flexing in the name of company glory may be well and good if your company is REI or Cannondale or the local fire company, comes the complaint. What about the lawyers, the programmers, the sales force … overwhelmed by long hours and takeout food?
Chelsea Piers offers corporate packages designed to promote involvement. The carrot is a discount for company employees who band together in the name of health.
Fitness in general is behind a coming 50,000-square-foot expansion, still to break ground. Marcoux described it broadly as “a family-to-corporate, high-end fitness facility.” It will adjoin the Blachley Road space, which now finds itself serendipitously beside the NBC Sports Group after NBC moved in last August. “They”™re a good match for us,” Marcoux said. “A lot of their employees take advantage of what we offer.”
February”™s Sochi Olympics will mean an uptick in interest at Chelsea Piers, which employs 300. As London 2012 spawned an increased interest in what Marcoux termed “swim and gym,” she expects from experience the winter games will bring out the inner (or forgotten) skater in many. The facility looks to make those temporary enthusiasms more permanent ”” perhaps within the year ”” by codifying Olympic-style events in which companies would compete.
Successful types often ride more obscure sports up the corporate ladder, perhaps none more prevalently than squash. It”™s fearsomely fast, but everyone is polite. Chelsea Piers hosts a complimentary squash clinic and free court rental Saturday, Jan. 18; details at ChelseaPiersCT.com.
