Drill Sergeant To the Stars
Opens wellness center near the bus terminal.
Pat Manocchia, owner of La Palestra, his famously exclusive “total-body fitness” center—it has only 175 members, including, reportedly, Liam Neeson, Diane Sawyer, and Howard Stern—in the former ballroom at the Hotel des Artistes on West 67th Street, has finally decided to open a gym for the rest of us. Well, almost: It’s in the Orion, a new luxury condo next door to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. This version of La Palestra, which will take up 8,200 square feet on the 28th floor and have floor-to-ceiling glass walls, will only serve health-conscious types who live in the building. Manocchia, who once dated Julia Roberts, says it’ll be all business. “If Jim in 26A hasn’t been to the gym in a while, we can call him up and say, ‘Hey Jim, what’s going on?’”
—S. Jhoanna Robledo