New Mexico native aims to revitalize Albuquerque fitness scene with local brand

Josh Vance knew he wanted to be a part of the fitness world from a young age. Now, he hopes to catapult Albuquerque into a new era of fitness with the opening of Ironverse.

A local gym brand new to Albuquerque, Ironverse, is slated to open inside the El Dorado Square shopping center at 11200 Montgomery NE in December. Vance, Ironverse’s owner and founder, plans to debut the gym during a soft opening Dec. 20 and a grand opening Jan. 3.

“It feels surreal,” Vance said. “The emotions haven’t really kicked in; I’m still in grind mode.”

A born-and-raised New Mexican, Vance has worked in gyms in New Mexico all his life. He first stepped into a gym when he was six years old, when his mother took him to the daycare at her gym in Santa Fe.

“That’s where I caught the bug and I knew in that moment this is what I wanted to do,” Vance said. “When I got older, every step I took was kind of in the direction to make this possible.”

Vance currently works as a business development executive with a technology company called Southwest Office Solutions, which he said is helping to make his own gym venture a reality.

The gym will open inside a 15,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Planet Fitness, which closed in November after its lease ended.

The five-year lease for the space did not come easily. Vance started searching for a spot for the gym more than a year ago and saw several deals fall through before finally securing the El Dorado Square unit over the summer.

“It’s hard when you’re a startup,” Vance said. “One landlord told me, ‘I won’t even entertain it unless you can show me a $2 million net worth,’ or ‘You’re not a franchise.’ It’s hard to find landlords (who) are open to a new concept.”

It’s been “crunch time” since securing the space, said Vance, who’s been working with a longtime connection and gym equipment seller to source a wide variety of more than 100 classic and new gym equipment pieces.

“Most people geek out on cars or guns or computers; I geek out on fitness equipment,” Vance said. “So there’s a lot of thought and love and passion that has been poured into this project.”

Vance hopes to bring something special to an Albuquerque fitness market that he said is flooded with corporate gyms, fitness boutiques or aging gyms.

He plans to do so with offerings including group exercise classes, mindful meditation, integrated sound therapy, private cold plunges and infrared sauna sessions, and personal training.

A community-driven, family culture is what Vance aims to establish at Ironverse, which will send reminders and messages of encouragement to members who haven’t shown up in a while — differing from corporate gyms, which he said profit off of people signing up for memberships and forgetting about them.

“I know what the gym did to my life ... and I’m excited to be able to have an impact and enact change within the community and in other people’s lives,” Vance said.

Ironverse has already onboarded hundreds of members and will employ between 25 and 45 people, Vance said. After a year and a half, Vance said he’ll start looking to expand, ideally opening between seven and 10 locations across New Mexico.