Repetition Fitness and the Build-to-Rent Market: Fitness Amenities Built for How BTR Actually Works
We work with build-to-rent (BTR) developers across Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas, Florida, and Virginia — and we're actively looking to partner with developers building in other markets too. BTR is currently the fastest-growing segment in U.S. housing, and fitness amenities in this space are frequently an afterthought: planned late, budgeted last, and modeled on assumptions borrowed from vertical apartmee-family homes, townhomes, and duplexes constructed specifically for rental rather than sale — are the fastest-growing segment of U.S. housing right now, outpacing both traditional for-sale housing and conventional multifamily. As of early 2026, roughly 61,700 BTR units were under construction nationally, and about 61% of that entire pipeline sits in the South.
The Southeast specifically leads this trend for a combination of reasons: sustained population in-migration, land availability that supports horizontal (rather than high-rise) development, and a widening gap between home prices and what renters can afford to buy into. Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia all rank among the states with the largest numeric population gains in the country, and Charlotte alone carries a BTR pipeline of over 4,000 units under construction with another 3,000 in lease-up — second only to Phoenix nationally. Northern Virginia and the Carolinas in particular have seen a recent surge in BTR development that industry analysts specifically attribute to the same demographic and affordability pressures playing out across the rest of the region.
This isn't a niche bet — major operators are building the same footprint. Landmark Properties, an established name in purpose-built student housing, has moved into BTR with active projects in Alabama and stated plans to expand across Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina over the next several years — nearly the same five-state footprint we're expanding into.
Why BTR Fitness Amenities Aren't Just a Smaller Version of Apartment Gyms
BTR communities differ from vertical apartment buildings in ways that actually change how a fitness amenity should be designed. Instead of a gym embedded within a residential tower, BTR fitness amenities are typically housed in a standalone clubhouse serving a horizontal community spread across a larger footprint — which changes traffic flow assumptions, parking and access considerations, and often the demographic using the space, since BTR renters skew toward families and long-term renters seeking single-family living without a mortgage, rather than the more transient population typical of urban apartment towers.
The core equipment and layout principles carry over from what we've built for condo and apartment communities but the specifics — clubhouse square footage, parking-adjacent access, amenity hours suited to a family-heavier resident base — are worth planning around deliberately rather than defaulting to an apartment-building template. The same differentiators we've written about for multifamily fitness rooms — naming the space, layout, equipment selection, and recovery solutions — apply just as directly here, arguably more so, since a BTR clubhouse often serves as the primary shared social space for a community that otherwise has less built-in interaction than a high-rise with shared hallways and elevators.
Why BTR Fitness Amenities Get Overlooked
BTR is still a young enough asset class that a lot of the surrounding expertise hasn't caught up to it. Vendors and consultants with deep multifamily gym experience often treat a BTR clubhouse as a smaller apartment amenity center rather than its own thing, while developers whose core expertise is single-family construction sometimes treat the fitness space as a late-stage line item rather than a planned amenity — something to fill after the homes themselves are designed, financed, and underway. The result is a lot of BTR fitness rooms that feel like an apartment gym template dropped into the wrong building type, undersized or oddly laid out for a community that's shaped completely differently than a residential tower.
How We Work With BTR Developers
Because BTR clubhouses function differently than apartment amenity centers, we work directly with developers from early planning rather than being brought in after the space is already built out — which matters more here than in a traditional multifamily project, since there's less established playbook to fall back on and more value in getting the layout, equipment, and positioning right the first time.
Where We're Active, and Where We're Looking Next
We're currently working with Trilogy Investment Co in Georgia, Alabama on BTR Properties and we see growth in the south Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina markets.
Means for BTR Developers
Whether you're planning a single clubhouse fitness amenity or a fitness package across multiple BTR communities, we bring the same equipment selection and layout and design planning we use across every market we serve, along with financing options for developers planning amenities across multiple properties at once.
Ready to talk through a BTR project — in Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas, Florida, Virginia, or elsewhere? Email us or call 888-669-7980 to get started.
