The national fitness chain Crunch will soon open its first metro New Orleans location, moving into part of the space left vacant by Winn-Dixie’s departure from a Mandeville shopping center in 2018.

Workers are currently building out the 30,000-square-foot Crunch Fitness club in half of the former grocery store off North Causeway Boulevard and East Causeway Approach. The club will open in December, a $5 million investment the franchise holder says will be the first of several Crunch locations on the northshore between Slidell and Baton Rouge.

Crunch will share half of the former Winn-Dixie with Altitude Trampoline Park, which has been in operation for some time in the high-visibility shopping center along two major thoroughfares just off the north end of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

Crunch, which like another national chain, Planet Fitness, offers several low-cost membership plans, will be open 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

Mike Goodsell, president of Fit Fushion, the franchisee opening the Mandeville location, said he thinks the gym will fit nicely into Mandeville’s health club landscape, long dominated by two well-known local brands, Pelican Athletic Club and Franco’s.

But, Goodsell said, “We don’t look at them from a competitive standpoint.”

While Crunch offers a similar pricing model to Planet Fitness, Goodsell said the clubs also offer additional amenities such as yoga and group fitness classes.

Goodsell, who grew up in Mandeville and now lives in Destin, Florida, said he has a Crunch gym in Indiana and is in the process of opening two more in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about the same time as the Mandeville club.

Goodsell’s local plans are ambitious: He said he eventually wants to open three in the Slidell area, one in Hammond and one in Gonzales.

“I’m shooting for six,” he said with a chuckle.

Crunch already has a gym in Baton Rouge.

Because of the low-price, no-contract business model, Goodsell said Crunch clubs can draw a larger customer base than others who charge more.

The shopping center took a hit with the closure of the Winn-Dixie store in the spring 2018, but has rebounded in recent years.

In addition to several other stores in the development, Acquistapace’s Wine and Cheese anchors one end of the center, which also includes the popular Pat Gallagher’s 527 Restaurant & Bar.

Jenna Kline, a senior public relations representative for Crunch, said the location’s proximity to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was one of the draws for the company.

“They’ve done a great job of rehabbing that space,” said Camden St. Romain, a commercial agent with Property One, which listed the location.

St. Romain said one space remains vacant in the shopping center, a former Blockbuster video store.

“The northshore’s been great,” St. Romain said of the commercial real estate business. “There’s a lot of good tenants entering the market.”