Photo courtesy of The St. James
The St. James Celebrates Grand Opening Saturday
A mega sportsplex is opening its doors in the region this weekend.
The St. James, a sports, wellness and "active entertainment" destination, will hold a grand opening Saturday, Sept. 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Springfield.
Located on a 20-acre campus at the intersection of I-395 and I-495 at 6805 Industrial Road, the 450,000 sq. ft. complex offers a combination of sports and wellness venues, programming and services, lifestyle, hospitality and active entertainment experiences.
The grand opening celebration is open to the public and will showcase the broad array of offerings available with fun and dynamic sports and other activities and exhibitions, spa services and food prepared by chef Spike Mendelsohn throughout the day. The activities will begin at 8 a.m. with yoga and Kaza dance classes followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring remarks from co-founders Kendrick Ashton and Craig Dixon and Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax beginning at 10 a.m.
The grand opening will feature:
- Sunrise Yoga
- Kaza Dance
- Interactive Water Park
- Opportunities to play soccer, lacrosse, football, rugby, basketball, volleyball, squash and golf
- Exhibition games of hockey, soccer, squash and water polo
- Mascots from local professional and college teams, including Slapshot from the Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals and G-Wiz from the NBA’s Washington Wizards as well as magicians, face painters, stilt walkers, jugglers and more
- Spa services from newly launched brand, Courted
“The St. James is aiming to transform how people of all ages learn to play and love sports, train to improve their games, comprehensively take care of their bodies and enjoy themselves while doing so,” said co-founder and co-CEO Kendrick Ashton, in a news release. “We’re incredibly excited to welcome the entire Washington region to experience all The St. James has to offer for the very first time on Saturday, September 15.”
“The experiences that are enabled by our combination of sports venues and programming, premium health club, spa and wellness offerings, delicious and healthy food from Chef Spike Mendelsohn, our health care partnership with MedStar Health and our extraordinary active entertainment offerings make The St. James a truly unique destination,” said Craig Dixon, co-founder and co-CEO of The St. James. “We’re delivering on the promise of providing a wholly new experience for sports, wellness and active lifestyle enthusiasts.”
The St. James will provide a combination of sports venues, coaching and instruction and development-focused programming designed to enable athletes of all ages and skill levels to pursue a variety of sports from baseball and softball, basketball and volleyball, squash and golf, football, lacrosse, soccer, rugby, hockey, skating, swimming, water polo and more:
- Field House with a FIFA regulation-sized turf field -- the only such field in the region -- and 65-foot roof clearances for all turf sports
- Court House with four full-length regulation basketball courts that convert into nine volleyball courts
- Ice House with two NHL regulation-sized ice rinks for all ice sports and a hockey skills training center that features both RapidShot and RapidHands skills training systems as well as a skating treadmill
- Pool House with a 50-meter Olympic regulation-sized competition pool for all water sports
- Hitting House with six batting cages and pitching machines for baseball and softball that converts into a multipurpose training venue
- Squash and Golf Center with eight international regulation-sized squash singles courts and seven golf simulators, including six full swing studios and a putting studio
- Gymnastics Center with 10,000 square feet with a competition spring floor, deep foam training pits, Tumbl Trak, rod floors and in-ground trampolines
- Climbing and Bouldering Wall with three stories and 6,000 square foot of dynamic climbing experience
The St. James also features health and wellness experiences:
- Premium Health Club with 50,000 square feet of cardio and strength-training equipment, spinning, group fitness and yoga rooms and a 10,000-square foot high-performance training center, locker rooms and childcare for member families
- High Performance Center with 10,000 square feet of conditioning and training equipment housed within the 50,000-square foot premium health club
- Courted premium medispa, wellness and rejuvenation brand and experience featuring nine treatment rooms for soft tissue, wellness and skin care treatments, cryotherapy, compression and other rejuvenation treatments, a manicure and pedicure studio and a Zen lounge
- MedStar Health and Sports Medicine Center featuring a best-in-class health care partner providing general, non-emergent health care services, sports medicine, sports performance and rehabilitation, which opens in Spring 2019.
Active entertainment and hospitality experiences offered at The St. James include:
- Super, Awesome and Amazing active entertainment brand featuring a 6,000 square foot interactive water park with slides, water dumping buckets, long-distance sprayers and other water-based play features, all indoors, which opens at the grand opening, and 25,000 square feet of dynamic obstacle courses, climbing structures and climbing walls, trampoline zones, virtual reality studios, a gaming theatre and seven party rooms all outfitted with best-in-class gaming systems, which opens in November 2018
- Restaurant and Market Café conceived in collaboration with celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn delivering healthy and delicious cuisine, opening in November 2018
- Premium Performance Retail Experience featuring a highly curated sneaker boutique, performance-oriented apparel, technology and equipment and premium The St. James branded apparel, which opens in November 2018
The St. James, which is backed by diversified real estate investment firm Cain International, expects to open a second flagship destination in the northern suburbs of Chicago in early 2021 and is working to bring The St. James to additional markets around the country.
