In a move to block national competition, Stone Climbing wants to break ground in October and start construction on its Southside Jacksonville climbing facility in December.
The project is planned along Deerwood Park Boulevard next to the Southeast Regional Library, west of Gate Parkway.
It is south of Butler Boulevard from St. Johns Town Center, and east of Interstate 295.
When completed, expected in August 2025, the facility will be the second for owners Eric Hires and John Thousand IV, who opened the first Stone Climbing gym in St. Augustine in 2021.
They both live in St. Augustine.
With success in St. Johns County, “we realized that there is a need for a premiere, modern climbing facility in Jacksonville,” Hires, Stone Climbing CEO and cofounder, said Aug. 27 by email.
It’s also a competitive strategy.
“In an effort to prevent a large, corporate climbing gym from out of state building one, we decided to move fast and keep climbing local in Northeast Florida,” Hires said.
“We’ve seen our model of the climbing gym help so many people thrive and become better versions of themselves. We want to continue to spread that stoke to Jacksonville.”
Hires estimates the total Jacksonville project investment at $6.5 million.
The city issued a concurrency reservation certificate for a 15,163-square-foot project on 1.38 acres. Maverick Engineering of Saint Johns is the civil engineer.
The certificate reserves development capacities for potable water, sanitary sewer, solid waste, recreation, schools and drainage to support the development.
Your Mom’s Holdings LLC will buy and own the site.
Hires is vice president and Thousand is president of Your Mom’s Holdings LLC, which they registered with the state in September 2023.
They intend to buy the land at the end of September from the Skinner family.
The location
Hires called the location “perfect.”
“It’s so accessible to many parts of Jax including the beaches, UNF, and north Saint Johns. We couldn’t be happier with the spot and love that we’ll be close to The Block Jax too,” he said, referring to the plans by Kanine Social owner and founder Daniel Moffatt to build an outdoor food hall, live music venue and play park for children, next to a new Kanine Social dog care facility, at southwest I-295 and Butler Boulevard, also south of St. Johns Town Center.
The University of North Florida is at northeast Butler and I-295.
Hires said Urban Partners Construction is the general contractor. He said Connor Dowling, principal at Open City Architecture in St. Augustine, designed the building.
In March, Climbing Business Journal posted a news release that Stone Climbing announced it would build a facility in Jacksonville.
It said it would include 50-foot lead walls, more than 5,000 square feet of bouldering, a MoonBoard and Tension 2 climbing training boards, a fitness center, and a recovery zone with a sauna and cold baths.
The gym includes a weight room, cardio equipment and yoga.
“Keeping with the original location’s clean aesthetic, they will be incorporating artwork, natural light, and Vertical Solutions walls in the design,” the site said.
The release said architect Dowling is a Stone member.
The founders
According to stoneclimbing.com, the facility’s site, Hires has been climbing for more than 20 years.
“He’s lived out of his truck racking up climbing experience around the country, from the crags of the Southeast to the great American West. In 2015, Eric climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan via The Nose,” it says.
Hires has lived in St. Augustine since 2004. He and his wife, Kayla, live on Anastasia Island with their son, Emmett, two dogs, a cat, and some chickens.
Thousand, who goes by JT, grew up in Colorado and has climbed and explored the front range of the Rocky Mountains for most of his life, the site says.
In 2016, Thousand and his wife, Jenni, moved to St. Augustine from Denver to grow their family dental practice. Dental Specialists of North Florida has offices in St. Augustine and Palm Coast.
The Stone Climbing site says the couple live on Anastasia Island with their two pugs, “climbing on their garage climbing wall.”
Hires is a graduate of Flagler College in St. Augustine.
The Flagler College Gargoyle student newspaper wrote in 2021 that:
“Out of this notebook will come a climbing gym in St. Augustine,” Eric Hires wrote in the first page of his notebook that would bring to life Stone Climbing, a dream 13 years in the making.
Gargoyle.flagler.edu wrote that in 2008, his visions of one day opening his own climbing gym in St. Augustine began in Paula Holanchock’s entrepreneurship class his senior year at Flagler College.
“Hires began this semester-long team project that never fully left his mind,” the news site reported.
“Taking the steps to make this dream a reality, Hires made attempts to open a climbing gym in 2012 and again in 2015, finding the right moment in 2021.”
Hires and Thousand filed Saint Augustine Climbing Company LLC with the state Nov. 18, 2019.
The St. Augustine gym
The St. Augustine Stone Climbing is at 115 Strongway Court, east of Epic Village and Florida 207, south of Dobbs Road Cutoff.
It opens at 11 a.m. daily, closing at 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday.
Individual monthly memberships are $85 with a $50 initiation fee, which is for one person and for one child age 8 or younger.
A monthly family membership $150, with a $75 initiation fee. That is for two family members, and an additional $40 for a child from 9 to 17 years old. The cost is $190 for families of three or more, with no more than two adults.
Day passes are $20 for a single day or $170 for 10 visits.
In addition to four 16-foot walls, there is a 35-foot “Central Pillar of Frenzy” that the site calls “a tip of the hat to an iconic climb in Yosemite Valley. Top rope or lead climb up our Central Pillar and find as much frenzy as you desire.”
The four walls are The Timo Wall, The Prow, the Zen Wall and The Wave.
There also is a “Grom Grotto” area designed for children.