Central Rock Gym Troy
Troy, New York
Specs: Founded by Ed and Joe Hardy, Central Rock Gym (CRG) opened its first location in 2009, a ground-up, mixed-discipline gym in Worcester, Massachusetts. Since then, the chain has grown to 30 total climbing gyms across six states, following the opening of CRG’s Troy (NY) and Fort Myers (FL) locations on July 12th, 2025, and January 2nd, 2026, respectively. According to Chandra Morgan, CRG Regional Manager for Upstate New York, the Troy location “has been a long time in the making.” Morgan said CRG opened its first gym in the region in Syracuse, back in 2017, and later opened Rochester and Buffalo gyms in 2019. Morgan said there was “an obvious hole” between the Hadley, Massachusetts gym and the Syracuse location, and there are “a number of staff members from that area who really pushed to have a location there.”
Ed Hardy said CRG had been looking to build a gym in the Albany/Troy region since 2019, but the team “had a very hard time finding the right piece of property for development,” since they wanted to purpose-build something from the ground up. “Once the pandemic hit, we put the plans on pause until 2022, when we found the right opportunity with a developer looking to transform downtown Troy and loved the idea of a rock climbing gym downtown as an integral part of their vision,” he continued.
CRG Troy is located “in the heart of Troy” and only six miles north of Albany, enabling the gym to serve the greater Albany market, Ed said. Morgan added that “the gym was part of a bigger revitalization project for Troy,” which included updating the area along the Troy waterfront as part of the Flanigan Square Transformation Project, led by First Colombia Development. According to Ed, the project brought new office and apartment buildings, a wedding venue and grocery stores to the area, with more businesses to come in the next one to two years.
CRG opted for the Troy gym to be a ground-up build, and construction of the facility eventually began in late 2023. Ed said, “Building from the ground up allowed us to get the height and all the amenities we wanted to have for the community.” Amenities at the new gym include 16,000 square feet of climbing terrain split among 250 linear feet of bouldering, 45-foot roped walls, a Tension Board 2, a Kilter Board, campus boards and hangboards. The gym offers birthday parties, group events and various climbing classes, such as intro to belay and intro to climbing. Additionally, the build-out of the 20,000-square-foot gym included adding separate rooms for yoga and fitness classes. “It’s really cool,” Morgan said of the space. “It’s kind of an industrial feel with some exposed brick and big windows looking out to the river.”
Walls: Walltopia…