High-end fitness concept Peloton is building a showroom at the Prudential Center mall in Boston for its first urban location in New England.

Since its founding in 2012, the New York company has charted aggressive expansion plans, primarily in suburban shopping malls. It’s considered one of the leaders in the omnichannel merchandising strategy – enabling customers to try out its stationary bike equipment with video workouts before deciding whether to invest in bike and activewear packages ranging up to $2,700.

“We have found that if consumers get the opportunity to sit on the bike and experience a live streamed class for themselves, the conversion to sale has been beyond our highest expectations,” Ryan Engel, Peloton’s head of retail development, said when announcing its Natick store opening in 2014.

That location was just the company’s sixth nationwide. Since then, it’s expanded to 44 stores in the U.S. And in August, Peloton raised $550 million in venture capital funding for a 20-store expansion in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Unlike omnichannel retailers such as Warby Parker and Bonobos, which gravitate toward downtown locations, the bulk of Peloton’s growth has been in suburban malls and lifestyle centers.

“90 percent of omnichannel retail goes urban first before they even consider the suburbs,” said Matt Curtin, a partner at CBRE who leads the brokerage’s retail team in Boston. “Peloton is different. Because of their customer base and because the stores takes up a little bit more square footage, they’re more comfortable in the suburbs.”

Peloton’s press office did not respond to inquiries, but an early December opening is scheduled, according to a customer service representative. Several job openings for the Back Bay store are listed on the company’s website.

Peloton’s third Bay State location is at WS Development’s Legacy Place in Dedham.

Peloton Cruises into Boston

by Steve Adams time to read: 1 min
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