Culver grads open bouldering gym in Indy aimed at building community

 

A pair of Culver Military Academy alumni are looking to help people get in shape while also building a sense of community through a bouldering gym they’ve opened in Indianapolis.

Elliott Steward ’04 W’99, Colt Reichart ’01 N’98 and another friend, Zach Donovan, have turned an abandoned box factory into a 52,000-square-foot bouldering gym that also includes yoga and fitness studios, a fitness area with free weights and cardio equipment, a children’s bouldering area, social and work spaces and Top Out Café, where people can fuel up before a climb or relax after a workout. There’s also a bar with 14 taps serving beer.

North Mass Boulder is more than a place to work out. It’s a place to hang out with friends, make new friends and build community, Steward said.

“It’s designed to be a third place,” Steward said. “You have your home, you have your work place and then you have the place you go to connect with your community.”

The doors to North Mass Boulder opened on June 19, 2021, after a long journey that began on the Culver Academies wrestling team when Steward was a 112-pound freshman and Reichart was the 152-pound senior tri-captain.

“He kind of took me under his wing and since that time he’s been sort of a big brother to me,” Steward said.

Steward was in Company A and Reichart was in Company C. Reichart’s brother, Beau ’99, was in Company A, as were the other two wrestling captains.

“I was down there a lot and he reminded me of myself because I was a lightweight when I was a freshman, and I really couldn’t shake him,” Reichart joked.

 

 

 

They kept in touch when Reichart went to Purdue.

“We both love doing anything outdoors,” Reichart said.

Steward got to know Reichart’s family when he took an internship at the family business. Reichart is the son of Brian Reichart ’68, who is president and CEO of Red Gold LLC, a family-owned and operated tomato processing company that is the largest privately owned tomato-processing company in the world.

Steward became interested in bouldering after getting a job at Starbucks corporate headquarters in 2010. But he wasn’t passionate about the job.

“I was doing a lot of climbing. I was climbing Mount Rainier and I was spending a lot of time in the mountains in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state,” he said.

He joined a bouldering gym. Bouldering is a form of rock climbing that doesn’t involve ropes and harnesses. The only equipment needed is shoes, which can be rented, which makes the sport more affordable and accessible.

Reichart also enjoyed the outdoors. Reichart and Steward took a National Outdoor Leadership course in Australia and then spent 54 days in the Outback backpacking and sea kayaking. Reichart was introduced to bouldering while visiting Steward.

“I thought, ‘This is fun. I wish we had something like this at home,’ ” Reichart said.

 

 

Steward applied for a job with Patagonia, the outdoor apparel retailer. During the interview, he was asked what the best part of his day was.

“I thought for a moment and said, ‘Probably when I get off work and I go climbing -- I go to the gym and I go bouldering,’ ” he said. “I have a sense of community there. I have a sense of identity there.”

He also thought about his father and his work as a carpenter, making high-end kitchen cabinets, and how passionate he was about his work.

“That kind of stuck with me as I progressed through my career. ‘Man, I really haven’t found my thing,’ ” he said.

He turned down the job offer from Patagonia and called Reichart to let him know about his idea to start a bouldering gym in Indianapolis. Reichart was fully behind him.

“He was so passionate about it. I said, ‘If we’re going to do it, we better do it before someone else does,” he said.

Steward decided to go ahead with the plan in 2016.

“It was an exciting and thrilling time because we had this vision of what we wanted to build and create,” Steward said.

It took five years to open because they wanted to find an existing building with at least a 30-foot ceiling, enough space, access to a highway and the right zoning.

“As you build your laundry list of what you are looking for, the building becomes more and more of a unicorn,” Steward said.

It took two years working before they found a building constructed in 1898 – four years after Culver was founded – that formerly was used to make corrugated boxes. The building, made of poured concrete, has more than 200 windows that are 11-feet-by-eight-feet but also needed to be thoroughly refurbished.

 

 

“We set out to build the best climbing gym that we could -- a place we’d be proud of,” Steward said.

Construction took 18 months and occurred during the pandemic.

“It was kind of scary at that time. We were thinking, ‘Man, is this plane going to fly?’ ” Steward said. “We believed it would. But there’s always that unknown.”

By June 2021, concerns about COVID were beginning to subside.

“People began thinking it was safe to go outside and connect with their families and friends after being cooped up during lockdown,” Steward said.

Their goal was to open with 1,700 presold memberships. They opened with 2,700 presold memberships. They now have more than 4,000 members. All three are co-owners. Steward is CEO, Donovan is CFO and Reichart is president and also is senior director of marketing and consumer relations at Red Gold.

Business has been going so well they are looking at adding 6,000 square feet to the facility to add room for cardio and free weights and a larger group fitness studio. They also are thinking about opening a second facility.

Steward is happy to be able to work with a friend from Culver.

“I feel lucky to be able to say I do what I love and with one of my best friends. I’m so lucky,” Steward said.