Mark Wahlberg Launches Affordable Longevity Gym Near Las Vegas

Mark Wahlberg is opening a 32,000-square-foot fitness facility called Municipal Gym in December outside Las Vegas. The facility will offer blood work, epigenetic testing, recovery gear, compression therapy, cold plunges, and an on-site café. Wahlberg announced the venture Thursday at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, positioning it as an affordable entry point into a market typically dominated by luxury memberships costing tens of thousands of dollars annually.

He described the gym with more enthusiasm than any previous business venture. “I’m more excited about this than anything I’ve done in my entire career,” he said, emphasizing the facility as both a place to train and a physical extension of his broader health-and-wellness brand.

The Longevity Market and Municipal’s Positioning

Luxury wellness pricing

The fitness and longevity space has attracted significant venture capital in recent years, with established players charging premium rates. Fountain Life, co-founded by Tony Robbins, raised $18 million last year while charging $21,500 annually for memberships at its wellness centers. The Estate, another venture involving Robbins in partnership with hospitality executive Sam Nazarian, plans to charge $35,000 annually. Equinox is building a waitlist for a $36,000 longevity add-on atop standard gym memberships.

Municipal’s price strategy

Wahlberg’s Municipal Gym targets this same luxury segment but at substantially lower cost. Members will pay $99 to receive three cycles of blood work and an hour consultation with a physician who identifies genetic predispositions and health risks. Supplements and hormone therapy are available on-site. Wahlberg said the combination delivered superior value. “We have a better price point than our competitors, and we’re going to get far more results,” he told TechCrunch.

From Apparel Brand to Fitness Ecosystem

Read also: Veritas launches second-gen chip to verify luxury goods · Lab-Grown Organoids Replace Animal Testing in Drug Development · How NTangible Aims to Quantify Clutch Performance in Athletes

Municipal originated as a casual sportswear line launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wahlberg acknowledged the venture came at an inauspicious moment. “It was not a good idea,” he said, noting that 2020 was a brutal year for clothing retail, with established retailers including J.Crew and Brooks Brothers filing for bankruptcy.

His ambition, however, extended well beyond apparel. After years working as a celebrity fitness spokesperson for various brands, Wahlberg grew frustrated with offers to serve as a brand ambassador for basic T-shirt and sneaker lines. He wanted broader impact across people’s daily health decisions: what they eat, which supplements they take, how they train, and how they recover. “Everybody just kind of wanted to sell T-shirts and sneakers,” he said. “And I was like, well, I want to kind of have a bigger impact on people’s lives as a whole.”

Clothing served as the foundation for a larger strategy. The gym represents a natural progression of that vision. A physical location allows customers to purchase and experience Municipal apparel while exercising, creating an integrated ecosystem where people can touch products before buying. The facility also addresses “another big part of people’s lives,” Wahlberg said: how they train and recover. He emphasized that he takes “swings at things that I’m very passionate about and things that are a direct extension of who I am,” and the gym meets both criteria.

Aggressive Expansion Strategy

Wahlberg declined to specify how many Municipal locations he plans to open, but described the growth strategy as “aggressive.” He noted that landlords and developers who toured the Las Vegas facility have already offered “AAA locations at very favorable terms, with great TI”—a reference to tenant-improvement allowances that help fund construction costs. The rapid interest suggests he expects to move quickly beyond the initial Las Vegas site.

His vision for the clubs differs from typical gym models. Wahlberg wants members to spend hours at Municipal, not dash in and out. He has grown frustrated with the industry standard of accepting that many members “join up but don’t show up.” “I can’t understand that philosophy,” he said.

F45 and the Lessons Wahlberg Learned

Wahlberg’s previous major investment in the fitness space provides instructive context. In 2019, he invested in F45, the fitness chain known for 45-minute workout classes, when the company carried a $450 million valuation. F45 went public in 2021 but was delisted from the NYSE in 2023 after its stock collapsed. When told that TechCrunch had recently watched his reality show, “Wahl Street,” documenting the F45 involvement, Wahlberg joked, “How did you know about the pandemic?”

That experience yielded critical insights. The primary takeaway, Wahlberg explained, was “making sure that I’m involved with people that share the same approach that I do.” He also concluded that the big-box gym model better served his goals than specialized fitness studios. F45’s 45-minute classes appeal to people short on time, but that business model conflicts with Wahlberg’s vision for Municipal as a community gathering place where members hang around for extended periods.

The Personal Mission Behind Municipal

The name Municipal carries intentional weight. Wahlberg grew up poor in Boston as one of nine children, spending formative time on public basketball courts and golf courses in his neighborhood. “You learn a lot on the blacktop,” he said. “You learn to win, to lose, to compete, and hopefully to get back up and do it again.”

His past is part of the public record. As a teenager, he was sentenced to two years for assault charges and served 45 days in custody. He credits two people with fundamentally altering his trajectory: his mother and Father Jim Flavin, a Boston-area parish priest who has been in his life since Wahlberg was 13 years old.

Municipal’s broader purpose reflects that personal history. Wahlberg wants the gym to serve as “a place to work, but have fun and support each other and create community and really challenge people to be better versions of themselves.” He is particularly focused on reaching young people facing circumstances similar to his own background. “I’ve come from next to nothing to being in an amazing position,” he said. “I try to constantly remind myself that I can inspire other people growing up in similar situations, especially inner-city kids and at-risk youth, that there is a way to overcome your circumstances if you’re willing to go out there and do the work.”

At 55, Wahlberg’s priorities have shifted. Where he once prioritized physical appearance, his current goal is simpler: to “feel good when I wake up in the morning” and “be able to conquer all the things that I have planned for the day.”

His plate is exceedingly full at present. Beyond the gym, he is working on a film role as Pete Rose and supporting his daughter’s equestrian career. He said visiting the Las Vegas construction site feels like “literally watching paint dry” as the December opening approaches. When asked whether he is seeking new ventures, he said, “I’m not out there hunting, looking for the next thing for sure.” He quickly added, however, that he wouldn’t dismiss the right opportunity. “If something amazing were to come along, obviously I wouldn’t turn it down.”

Source: TechCrunch