Keith H. McCoy & Associates shuttered its fabric and wallpaper showroom at 8710 Melrose Ave. in 2021 after more than 10 years at the 4,144-square-foot single-story building across from the Pacific Design Center. Two years later, Olivia Spralja’s Silver Springs yoga and Pilates studio launched in the museum-like space. The studio offers individual classes – which are frequently sold out – for $42 or a monthly membership for $350.
A decade after New York magazine declared the “pilatespocalypse” in the U.S., the mind-body fitness method is more popular than ever in Los Angeles. There are nearly two dozen Pilates studios in West Hollywood alone, according to an analysis by the Business Journal. It’s one piece of a broader retail transformation the 1.9-square-mile city is embracing amid a consumer spending surge fueled by GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. Nationwide spending on specialty fitness, cosmetics and medical spa services rose from $86 billion in 2020 to $132 billion in 2025, according to an August report from brokerage giant CBRE. The so-called “vanity” economy now accounts for 37.5% of all leased retail space nationally, according to CBRE’s analysis of CoStar data from the second quarter of 2026.
“L.A. sees more of it because we adopt these things ahead of other markets,” said Lorena Tomb, chief executive and founder of UrbanLime Real Estate, who arranged the deal for Silver Springs and specializes in wellness clients. “It started with the entertainment industry, but now beauty trends are so accessible. Social media makes it easy to learn about treatments, where to go to get them, what classes you need to do. The demand in L.A. is probably stronger than most other markets – cold plunges, drip IV therapy. People are putting a lot of care into beauty and wellness.”
A market in transition
Los Angeles landlords more broadly are focused on selecting the right tenants as the retail market slowly rebounds from a wave of closures following the COVID-19 pandemic. The 27-million-square-foot Hollywood-Wilshire retail submarket has the highest availability rate in the region at 8.6% and saw negative net absorption of 73,000 square feet in the second quarter of 2026 while no new space was added to the market, according to a report by CBRE. Yet it commands the county’s second-highest average triple-net asking rent at $3.57 per square foot a month, behind only the Westside’s $4.25.
But negative absorption in Hollywood may reflect turnover across the submarket’s tenant base rather than an overall retreat, brokers told the Business Journal. CBRE’s Ryan Gurman, who specializes in retail leasing and sales across West Los Angeles, is seeing that play out block by block as membership-based wellness clubs like Remedy Place and Pause Studio fill the social role once occupied by bars and nightclubs.
“It’s almost like the new status symbol is being healthy,” Gurman said. He pointed to a broader cultural shift away from nightlife spending: “We’re seeing people drinking less. We’re seeing people go out less because people are now really appreciating waking up early, working out, taking care of their bodies.”
The “vanity” category defies a single definition, which makes it hard to track. But Gurman breaks it into four subcategories. First is boutique fitness, dominated by Pilates concepts. Second is cosmetics retail, which spans national chains like Sephora and Ulta Beauty as well as international brands entering the U.S. Third is medical spas offering Botox, fillers and microneedling. Fourth is what Gurman calls “real” spas, offering bathhouses, saunas and cold plunges.
Ebere Anokute, head of retail research for CBRE, said GLP-1 weight-loss drugs have been an accelerant of the “vanity” trend, but stopped short of calling it a root cause. U.S. adult use of GLP-1 drugs rose to 15% in 2025 from about 6% the prior year, according to Bernstein Research.
Mall owners are tracking the shift, too. Jamie Bourbeau, senior vice president of leasing for mall owner Macerich, told the Commercial Observer in July that weight loss is changing which of her company’s tenants perform best.
Amid these national trends, what gives Los Angeles an edge, according to Anokute, is that the city has “prioritized social media and influencer dynamics since the advent of those things.” That has made it a logical market for beauty and wellness concepts to take hold – and an entry point for international brands.
U.S. consumers spent $2 billion on K-beauty products in 2025, according to CBRE, and Anokute said companies in that category have generally chosen to break into the U.S. market in Los Angeles or elsewhere on the West Coast before expanding further, citing regional demographics as the draw.
South Korean beauty giant Olive Young opened its first U.S. store in Pasadena in May, followed by a second location at Westfield Century City in June, and has announced plans for several more California stores before entering New York, as the Business Journal previously reported.
Anokute framed Los Angeles as an heir to SoHo, comparing the local market to the role the downtown neighborhood once played in Manhattan. “Five, six years ago, we were talking about digitally native brands. An overwhelming majority were looking at SoHo in New York,” he said. “But now pricing in New York has gotten so high, frankly, that L.A. seems to be another option” for brands seeking exposure while keeping the economics workable.
Beyond West Hollywood
Tomb’s work on the Silver Springs deal put her on the front lines of a new type of retail cluster she sees emerging on Melrose and the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood as well as other hotspots. Larchmont Village, by contrast, leans more on discrete operators dispersed throughout the neighborhood, according to Tomb. It’s home to Skin Laundry, beauty retailer Bluemercury and luxury massage studio Sanctuary Spa mixed in among bakeries and restaurants rather than clustered as a standalone wellness strip.
“You’ll see a pilates studio and med spa next to an Erewhon,” Tomb said. “You’ll do your pilates, then get your juice, then your red-light therapy. These businesses want to be next to each other.”
Lake Avenue in Pasadena has also emerged as a hub, with Barry’s, SoulCycle, weight loss clinic Lean Lab and Sugared and Bronzed beauty salon all opening in the L.A. suburb within walking distance of one another, with parking nearby.
“In L.A., a retail area is lacking if it doesn’t have wellness,” Tomb said.
That ecosystem effect, she said, is deliberate. Operators in this category actively seek out neighbors that reinforce the same routine and boost each other’s visibility, rather than simply filling available space.
But zoning complicates how quickly that ecosystem can flourish, and the rules vary block by block.
Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, Culver City, Santa Monica and other cities within the county each define medical use differently, which matters because most jurisdictions bar ground-floor medical uses in retail space unless a location already carries that entitlement, according to Tomb and Gurman. Beverly Hills enacted an ordinance in 2011 that limits medical uses to buildings within the city’s zoning overlay. It also launched a Medical Building Registration program updated most recently in 2021, according to the city’s website. The ordinance defines any medical spa offering injectables as a “medical use” and requires those tenants to apply through the city’s Planning Commission – a process Tomb called “complicated.”
West Hollywood, by contrast, is considerably more lenient. The city allows medical-use businesses to operate by right as long as they meet a minimum parking requirement of three spaces per 1,000 square feet of floor area, according to its zoning ordinance.
Fitness studios meanwhile face their own hurdles, according to Gurman. Parking requirements historically have been linked to retail occupancy, though several cities have eased those minimums for boutique operators with smaller footprints and lower maximum occupancy. That means parking can be a headache during peak hours at Silver Springs, and the Pilates studio advises clients to use metered street parking or pay for a spot in a public lot around the corner if its small on-site lot is full, according to the company’s website.
A landlord’s perspective
Shopping plaza developer and former L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso is leaning into the trend across his company’s portfolio, including The Grove and Palisades Village, where beauty and wellness businesses are performing better than other tenants, according to Jackie Levy, Caruso’s chief financial and revenue officer.
At The Grove, beauty, skincare, fashion and luxury brands have accounted for 38% of pop-up marketing events since 2021, a spokesperson for Caruso said. That includes nine Korean beauty brands, some of which have converted into permanent tenancies. Korean skincare brand Laneige progressed from five pop-ups into a full-time store at The Grove. And a recent “Live Seoul” pop-up organized this summer by Seoul-based Lotte Home Shopping and South Korea’s state-funded trade promotion agency KOTRA brought 43 Korean beauty brands to The Grove at once. The Grove’s dedicated pop-up space, known as the Glass Box, is booked through mid-2027.
The fitness side has expanded too at Caruso’s properties. Strength-training gym chain Solidcore has three locations across its properties, according to Levy. And wellness tenants often require specialized plumbing, electrical, ventilation or acoustic work and private treatment rooms, Levy added, which is why spaces like the Glass Box need to be designed with flexible build-outs in mind.
“Los Angeles has long been a leader in beauty, wellness and lifestyle,” Levy stated. That makes it “a natural testing ground for brands to introduce new concepts.”
A fad or a lasting change?
Vanessa Lee launched her medical spa chain, The Things We Do, in Los Angeles in 2018 and has built a loyal following, thanks to the company’s less-is-more approach to aesthetic procedures. The Things We Do, which Tomb has also represented in deals across multiple Southern California locations, developed its own treatment line after Lee studied injectables trends in South Korea. The company opened its fifth location, at 8447 Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood, earlier this year. Its menu includes facial balancing procedures such as brow lifts and cheek lifts, plus injectable fillers, microneedling and laser treatments like PicoSure Pro and Onda Pro.
“It’s a small footprint, but they don’t need much space,” Tomb said. “On average, medical spas generate higher figures per square foot given the cost of the treatments.” She likened the business model to a membership club because clients often return every three to four months for repeat procedures.
The company’s gentler approach to aesthetic treatments is also a hedge against a future collapse of the sector as beauty trends shift over time.
Retail also has a history of short-lived trends – frozen yogurt chains crowded strip malls a decade ago before largely disappearing. But Anokute argued the “vanity economy” is different because its growth has been gradual rather than sudden. He also said younger consumers tend to stay loyal to individual service providers once they find one they trust.
Cosmetic surgery shows no sign of peaking, industry data indicates. Procedures rose 7% in 2025, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ most recent annual report. In The New Yorker in July, Jia Tolentino argued that full lips, fox eyes and pronounced cheekbones now define the ubiquitous yet vaguely uncanny face young people see everywhere in their feeds.
“Now we have arrived at a place where you can acquire Instagram Face at your local strip mall and the monied are seeking facelifts instead,” Tolentino wrote.
Anokute said immersion in social media is a key driver of the sector’s influence on the retail market. He predicted that the “emphasis on vanity that’s driving all of this is only going to get more pronounced.”
