A new all-in-one gathering place is launching to shake up the city's beach-and-bar social monotony, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Hexrock, the sprawling new climbing gym and community hub east of I-75, is aiming to redefine how people stay fit, have fun, and get connected in town. 

At first glance, the 24,000-square-foot facility, formerly known as Project 24 Climbing, delivers what you’d expect from a serious climbing gym: towering walls with 14,000 square feet of climbing surface, a mix of top rope and lead climbing, and a sizable bouldering section. There are 14 auto belays (a rock-climbing safety technique) and a variety of wall angles designed to keep climbs dynamic and engaging. 

But for its creators, Sarasota’s first climbing gym isn’t just about climbing—although, if you're a climber, you’ll rejoice over the fact you no longer have to make the trek across the Skyway Bridge every time you want to spend a weekend on the wall. 

“We want to make this the non-drinking social hub of Sarasota,” owner Aaron Rutsky explains. “We’re going to have video game tournaments, board game nights, we can have bands or DJs on top of the boulder. You can work remotely here, and if you need a more private workspace, we’ll have cubicles.” The space also houses a yoga studio, a comprehensive fitness area, a retail gear shop, an infrared sauna, a co-working loft with cubicles and communal tables, a coffee bar, reflexology and massage rooms, and even a podcasting and recording space. 

It’s the kind of place general manager Austin Venhaus always wished Sarasota had—and in the absence of it, he decided to build it himself. He graduated from New College of Florida in 2019 and, unlike many of his peers, chose to remain in Sarasota. He envisioned an inclusive space where people of all ages, abilities, and interests could “just hang out.” After pandemic delays and funding setbacks stalled the project, it was given new life when Venhaus and his wife, Andrea, joined the effort. They visited more than 60 climbing gyms across the country, interviewing other owners about what worked and what they wished they’d done differently. The team took those lessons to heart in creating Hexrock—there’s a top-tier air conditioning and filtration system, a spacious parking lot, a gym intended to make you rethink your other membership, and an almost obsessive focus on safety. 

By its nature, climbing carries risk, but the team made it a priority to reduce avoidable hazards wherever possible. That includes oversized fall zones, higher-than-normal belay gates to prevent accidental unclipped climbs, and a specialized flooring system under auto belays designed to absorb high-impact falls that’s among the first installed in the country. “How could we not do it?” Rutsky says. “It’s more money, sure, but I couldn’t sleep at night if someone got hurt and I knew I could have done better.” 

Venhaus says if he had to choose three pillars for the space, they would be safety, inclusivity and community. “We’re really trying to make it a third space where when people aren’t at home or at work, they come hang out,” he says.

The gym intends to host everything from Dungeons & Dragons nights to singles events—because “climbing gyms are the new nightclubs,” Venhaus says with a laugh, referencing articles on the topic that have come out everywhere from the BBC to The New York Times. 

“There have been studies done on gyms in urban areas and how they have significant impacts on everything from crime to high school graduation rates,” says Venhaus. With that broader community impact in mind, Hexrock will also host robust youth programming like camps, homeschool climbing sessions, recreational teams and sensory-friendly climbing hours. There’s even a wall with a system that projects video games onto the surface, allowing the more screen-familiar generations to combine interactive digital play with physical activity. 

While much of the facility’s programming is particularly welcoming to those under 45, they’re also not leaving out the dominant age group in town. “The Classic Rockers is our older adult group,” Venhaus explains. “A sense of community is tied heavily to longevity and mental wellbeing. We’re trying to bring that in for them. A ton of climbers we saw at the microgym [the compact, garage-style bouldering facility that opened while the team prepared for the grand opening of HEXRock] were in their 60s, 70s and even 80s.”

Climbing culture is intrinsically social, and the Hexrock team aims to lean into that spirit. It’s not uncommon for a group of people who don’t know each other to cheer each other on with such enthusiasm that any onlooker would assume they walked in together, problem-solving routes and relying on partners. In an increasingly digital world, the gym offers a rare kind of face-to-face community that is especially valuable in a city working to foster more intergenerational connection and give younger residents the stronger social infrastructure they crave. If the early buzz has been any indication, Sarasota is more than ready for a space that can help. 

Hexrock opens to the general public on June 6, 2026.