Luxurious $43 million Life Time club set to open this year at Southdale

James O'Reilly, president of Life Time Work, gives a tour of a private office at Southdale location.

Shopping malls and healthy lifestyles aren't normally two things people associate with each other. But the leaders behind Life Time, Inc.'s luxury health club that will soon open at the Southdale Center in Edina hope their new facility could change opinions.

The more than $43 million, four-story complex is the largest club investment the Chanhassen-based health and wellness company has made in the Twin Cities and the first of its kind in the country which combines Life Time's co-working, fitness, spa and soccer facilities under one roof.

On Thursday, reporters were given a sneak peek at the progress of the complex scheduled to open by the end of the year.

"It supports this pedestrian lifestyle," said James O'Reilly, president of Life Time Work, the fitness company's co-working arm, as he discussed the club's location next to the Southdale shopping center.

Members will be able to walk from the club to the northeastern side of the mall (where J.C. Penney used to stand) thanks to an enclosed "winter garden" pathway on the ground level.

"It's a prime location. … There would have been no way to find an open land build in Edina," said Shawn Severson, director of Life Time Edina.

While the average Life Time club is about 130,000 square feet, the Life Time Edina at Southdale location is 147,000 square feet not including the 29,000-square-foot Life Time Work co-working space and the 28,000-square-foot Life Time Sport soccer facilities.

When completed, the complex will offer resort-like amenities including a rooftop pool deck and bistro where people can be served from their pool chairs; multiple training, cycle and yoga studios; a full-service spa for body, hair and nails services; indoor pools as well steam rooms and saunas; a "kids academy" with classes like karate, music and Spanish immersion; and a café for healthy foods along with a separate sushi restaurant.

But all of those amenities will cost you. The Southdale location will be the first Life Time club in the Twin Cities that will require diamond premier membership which goes from $159 a month for an individual membership ($20 cheaper if you are under 30) and can go as high as $339 for a family of four.

Professionals can work at the facility's co-working space which offers individual offices for as many as 10 people and communal workspaces. Work members automatically get access to the fitness facilities. Life Time Work has already sold memberships accounting for about 60 % of the space, O'Reilly said.

The Edina club will be only the second location with its soccer-focused Life Time Sport programs. People will be able to play pickup soccer and train on two indoor turf fields and separate training rooms. The first Life Time Sport facility opened last year at the former Vikings football practice area at Winter Park in Eden Prairie.

While the incorporation of Life Time Sport makes the Edina club unique, Life Time has constructed other luxury clubs in Ardmore, Pa., and Cypress, Texas. Furniture store Restoration Hardware recently opened its own multi-level luxury location in the parking lot on the other side of Southdale Center.

On Thursday, construction workers at Life Time were busy doing tiling and other finishing work. Life Time Edina is scheduled to open late November though a spokeswoman for the company hinted it could be even later this year due to weather delays. Life Time is in the process of hiring to fill more than 200 jobs at the club and has opened a preview center at Southdale for prospective members and team members.

Shawn Severson, director of Life Time Edina, discusses the soccer activities offered at Life Time Sport.