After years of planning and construction, the new rock-climbing gym is nearly complete in Downtown Erie.

Ascend Erie is a rock-climbing gym located at 426 State Street.

It won’t be open for a couple of weeks, but we are getting you excited about what Downtown Erie has to offer.

Downtown Erie is expanding, with more family-friendly attractions coming to State Street.
The founder of Ascend Erie says soon their climbing gym will be open, which includes a 45-foot rock wall, bouldering terrain, yoga studios and a fitness center.

“Building a climbing gym of this scale is no easy task. It takes a couple of years from the day that that we select the site, break ground and build the building, and then come the climbing walls,” said Paul Guarino, owner of Ascend Climbing.

Guarino added Ascend has created climbing gyms in other cities like Pittsburgh. He added that a Canadian company called Onsite makes the walls.

“We helped design the walls with them virtually, and then, in a way, like in rector set, they come here in shipments and then the amazing team here that you can hear in the background put them up one piece at a time. Three to four months later, we’ve got our climbing walls for people to climb on,” Guarino said.

Drew Whiting, the CEO of the Erie Downtown Development Corporation, said the completion of the climbing gym is a critical piece of their vision.

“Downtown being the focus of the entertainment district of our region is really what we’re trying to bring into fruition. To have the housing density and to have all the other businesses around it and supporting it and feeding off of that activity is really the goal of the entire cluster development and mission of the revitalization of the core from the beginning,” said Whiting.

The gym is expected to open to the public on Nov. 6.