Penrose on Mass lines up new tenants

An Eat the Frog Fitness facility, a tea shop called Latea and a cell-phone repair shop called CPR are set to join five other retailers that have recently opened in the new $50 million Penrose on Mass mixed-use development at 530 Massachusetts Ave.

The Penrose project adds an entire block's worth of new retail development to that neighborhood.

Dan and Marla Mock are the franchisees for Eat the Frog’s Mass Ave location, which will occupy about 2,900 square feet and is aiming for an opening in late June.

Eat the Frog Fitness, based in Issaquah, Washington, was established in 2015 by Olympic athlete Bryan Clay and business executive Joe Culver. Clay won two medals in the men’s decathlon—a gold medal in Beijing in 2008 and a silver medal in Athens in 2004.

The fitness centers offer both live and virtual group fitness classes. Each member receives a personal training plan and undergoes periodic fitness testing to check his or her progress.

To date, Eat the Frog has only a handful of locations around the U.S., but it is in growth mode.

Dan Mock said he’s secured 15 licenses from Eat the Frog to develop locations around Indiana, some of which Mock and his wife will assign to other franchisees.

So far, Mock said, he and his wife are among three franchisees working to open a total of five Eat the Frog studios in central Indiana.

The first Eat the Frog in the state will be at 12751 N. Pennsylvania St. in Carmel, in a new development that sits on a Meijer grocery store outparcel. That location, which IBJ first reported last year, is set to open in early June and the franchisee is Daniel Frausto.

Mock said he’s also signed as franchisees Ryan and Hayley Murray. The couple plans to open three Eat the Frog locations and is scouting locations in Fishers, Noblesville and the Zionsville/west Carmel area.

— Another new tenant coming to Penrose on Mass is Latea, a tea shop with locations in West Lafayette and Champaign, Illinois.

The 1,860-square-foot space will include seating for 32 in the main dining area, with an additional 16 mezzanine seats and 12 outdoor seats, according to city permit filings. The filings identify Jack Hsiao as Latea’s owner.

According to its website, Latea sells bubble tea, iced tea and snacks, including seasoned fries and pastries.

Latea’s West Lafayette store opened in August 2014, and the Champaign store opened in early 2016. IBJ was unable to reach Hsiao for details on when the Mass Ave shop will open.

— The CPR cell-phone repair shop will go into a 1,200-square-foot space at the corner of North New Jersey and North streets. It’s the only retail space in the Penrose project that does not front Mass Ave.

CPR has more than 750 locations nationwide and more than a dozen in Indiana, including stores in Castleton, Carmel, Zionsville and Avon.

CPR, Latea and Eat the Frog join existing Penrose tenants Condado Tacos, Old National Bank, Club Pilates, the restaurant LouVino and Kilwins, which sells fudge, chocolate and ice cream. Condado opened earlier this month, and the other four opened in March.

Indianapolis-based Resource Commercial Real Estate is handling commercial leasing for the site.

Five retail spots at Penrose on Mass are still vacant, but Resource Principal Beth Patterson said her firm is talking with potential tenants for each of the vacancies. Patterson declined to identify the potential clients but said they represent a mix of restaurants and retailers. 

The five-story building has about 39,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, plus 236 apartments. 

Partners in the project include Carmel-based residential developer J.C. Hart Co. Inc., Indianapolis-based StrongBox Commercial Development Group and architecture/engineering/design firm Schmidt Associates.