Yoga studios around the city should keep a close eye on their yogis and yoginis—a deep-pocketed competitor is coming to town and has been secretly negotiating to lure top instructors. Pure Yoga, the Hong Kong–based center that drew 3,000 practitioners to its last yoga conference, has signed a deal with Equinox, and the fitness conglomerate will be opening Pure Yoga outposts in the United States, starting in the spring with a nearly 20,000-square-foot space on East 86th Street. “Yoga is in great demand, and that continues to grow,” says Equinox CEO Harvey Spevak. (It’s currently a $3 billion industry.) Spevak says the new club will be “design and amenity driven,” which means the usual Equinox high-end gloss, five rooms simultaneously offering classes in different styles, and an emphasis on customer service, including the ability to book the exact floor space for your mat online. “It’s a natural extension of Equinox,” says Spevak, “and we will continue to expand and pursue an aggressive yoga strategy.”

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Beth Landman
• Table of Contents: Jan 7, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!