Mark Wahlberg's Municipal gym takes on pricey longevity clubs

Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on Thursday, Wahlberg said the first Municipal Gym opens in December: a 32,000-square-foot club outside Las Vegas with blood work, epigenetic testing, recovery gear, compression therapy, cold plunges and a café serving protein muffins. He is pitching it as the affordable alternative to the longevity clubs that charge tens of thousands of dollars a year for much the same thing.

The gym is the second part of a plan Wahlberg says he first hatched, in some ways, seven years ago with a casual sportswear line. That clothing brand, also called Municipal, launched during COVID — timing he now says was not a good idea, given how many retailers were struggling to survive that year. He said other companies kept approaching him to be a brand ambassador for T-shirts and sneakers, but he wanted a bigger stake in what people eat, train with and recover using, so apparel became the first step toward what he now describes as a health-and-wellness ecosystem covering everything from supplements to recovery.

Most competitors in diagnostics-heavy longevity care have targeted the very top of the market. Fountain Life, the longevity company co-founded by Tony Robbins, raised $18 million last year to expand its centers for wealthy clients, where a full subscription runs $21,500 a year, according to reports. The Estate, co-founded by Robbins and hospitality executive Sam Nazarian, is still mapping out plans to charge $35,000 memberships. Equinox is building a waitlist for a $36,000 longevity add-on it plans to launch on top of a traditional gym membership. Wahlberg says Municipal will match that same luxury tier at a fraction of the price: “We have a better price point than our competitors, and we’re going to get far more results,” he said. As an example, he said $99 at Municipal buys three rounds of blood work and an hour with a doctor to flag what members are predisposed to, with supplements and hormone therapy also available.

Wahlberg called the expansion plan aggressive, saying landlords and developers who toured the Las Vegas site have offered locations on favorable terms, including tenant-improvement allowances, though he did not put a number on how many gyms he ultimately wants. It is a different bet than his last big fitness investment: Wahlberg bought into the F45 chain in 2019 at a $450 million valuation; F45 went public in 2021 and was delisted from the NYSE in 2023 after its stock collapsed. He says that experience taught him to work only with partners who share his approach, and that he always preferred a big-box model to F45’s 45-minute-class format — he wants Municipal members to stick around for hours rather than join and never show up.

Why it matters

Wahlberg’s bet is that the diagnostics-heavy longevity trend can scale past its wealthiest early adopters once someone undercuts the price, putting Municipal in direct competition with venture-backed names like Fountain Life, The Estate and Equinox for the same affluent wellness spending.