NinjaZone leaving Grand Park, but not Westfield

The company that operates NinjaZone Academy Grand Park and Wright’s Fundamentals Gymnastics North is finalizing a deal to build an athletics facility close to the park, which NinjaZone is in the process of leaving.

For the last two years, NinjaZone has operated a fitness academy in a space it leased from the city of Westfield at the Grand Park Events Center, but recently NinjaZone and the city agreed to terminate the lease, a move that will cost the city $625,000, according to a confidential settlement agreement.

“The new building will be in Westfield very close to our existing two facilities (NinjaZone Academy Grand Park and Wright’s Fundamentals North),” Megan Noel, a spokesperson for NinjaZone, wrote in an email to IBJ. “The land agreement is still being finalized, but we’re excited to stay in Westfield, near our current locations.”

Construction could begin as early as this summer and be complete by mid-2020.

NinjaZone and Wright’s are owned by the same corporate entity, 3E!, which operates four area Wright’s Gymnastics facilities, two NinjaZone Academy locations, Ninja Sports International and NinjaZone LLC.

“Upon completion of the athletic center, parents can expect an innovative space, with state of the art equipment, expert trained coaches and personalized instruction to ensure students build fundamental core athletic skills through early positive experiences,” a news release from NinjaZone said.

Until the new sports center is complete, classes for Wright’s Fundamentals Gymnastics North and NinjaZone Academy Grand Park will be held at the existing Wright’s North facility at 1021 Kendall Court in Westfield. That space is being renovated this month.

In early 2017, NinjaZone signed a five-year lease for 3,000 square-feet of first-floor space in the Grand Park Events Center. The city used NinjaZone’s leased space “during a certain period of the year for other events, temporarily displacing NinjaZone from the leased space,” a the settlement agreement between NinjaZone and the Westfield Redevelopment Commission states.

The city and NinjaZone had disputed the value of the space during the times the city wanted to use it, leading to the termination agreement.

A NinjaZone representative told IBJ the company is unable to speak about the lease, the events leading up to it deciding to leave Grand Park or its negotiations with Westfield.