Yesterday, FitLot, a relatively new startup, officially opened its What You Give Will Grow FitLot Fitness Park, which will serve as a free-to-use outdoor fitness station near the Lafitte Greenway. Named after its primary sponsor, What You Give Will Grow, this new fitness park is the first of many projects coordinated by FitLot.

What You Give Will Grow FitLot Fitness Park

The new park is located near the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center lot, located on Lafitte Avenue and Galvez Street. The outdoor fitness center will be on the adjacent side of the community center’s playground. After the fitness center is built, there will be a path connecting it to the Lafitte Greenway.

Initially, the construction of the outdoor fitness center was completed during the first week of February, according to Adam Mejerson, the founder and executive director for FitLot. A ribbon cutting celebration for the Greenway FitLot will be held in March of 2017.

The new fitness park serves nearly 900 nearby residents, and collaborating with New Orleans ReFresh Project, located near the Greenway.

Check out the opening ceremony video posted by the New Orleans Saints on its official Facebook page.

The new fitness park is a tent-like structure. Circuit exercise equipment will be attached to the support beams of the structure. On the inside of the FitLot, there will be over 1,000 square feet of open floor space where community classes and sessions will be held.

Content courtesy of Adam Mejerson, FitLot

Mejerson is looking forward to how the Greenway will evolve overtime. The development of the new fitness park, and the NRPA Play Build Community Project mark two new developments on the Greenway in under two years.

The Lafitte Greenway , a 2.6 mile path that spans from City Park to Louis Armstrong Park, opened in November of 2015.

What’s FitLot?

FitLot, founded in 2013, is a nonprofit dedicated to creating public access to outdoor fitness centers to promote healthy lifestyles.

Adam Mejerson, the founder and executive director of FitLot, started his nonprofit nearly four years ago through New Orlean’s Propellor incubator.

“The idea started when I did work in Broadmoor in New Orleans, after the storm, repurposing blighted lots and vacant spaces. I stumbled across many parks that were not being used,” Mejerson said.

Content courtesy of Adam Mejerson, FitLot

“There is only one outdoor fitness park in New Orleans. In other cities are there are several more. We thought it would a positive way to repurpose space in the city. This is our first project and we’ve been planning it before the Lafitte Greenway opened. After a couple of years, we’re excited the project is finally coming together,” he added.

However, Mejerson wanted to take a new approach to building outdoor fitness centers in the city.

“We looked at other fitness parks, their layouts and how people use that space. We wanted to design a space that can be used in community setting,” Mejerson said.

According to Mejerson, many other outdoor fitness centers around the nations are designed by playground manufacturers. In this case, adult fitness centers are often limited by budgets and square footage.

• Construction for Lafitte Greenway FitLot is underway [Curbed NOLA]