Founding members shape the studio before the doors open, and lock in benefits we'll never offer again. Here's what you get for being early.
The founding rate is the lowest we will ever offer. It stays yours for as long as you're a member.
Receive one complimentary private session with the founder Ken
Exclusive events, early access to new offerings, and a few things reserved only for the first members through the door.
Choose the founding plan that fits you. Founding pricing is only available until we open.
Founding members shape the studio before the doors open, and lock in benefits we'll never offer again. Here's what you get for being early.
Ken Pilates was founded by Kennyth Montes de Oca, a dancer, artist, and established Pilates instructor. We're an independent studio with two locations in Hoboken, New Jersey. Chelsea is our first location in New York City. We're a small LGBTQ+, Latinx, and Black-owned business. That's meant a room where many different people feel welcome on day one; beginners next to regulars, instructors who learn your name. We're adding community to Chelsea.
Ken Pilates Chelsea is at 541 6th Avenue in Manhattan, on Sixth Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets. We're walkable from Union Square, the Flatiron, the West Village, and Meatpacking districts. Near and far, we open in September 2026.
There are three spaces inside: the Hot Mat Room, the Tower Room, for sculpt, strength, and stretch classes; and the Private Room for one-on-one personal training. Your membership covers every class in the Hot Room and Tower Room.
A Founding Member is a limited number of people who commit to Ken Pilates Chelsea before we open. You will be treated with care, respect, and admiration, permanently. It includes:
We're capping it at 40. A founding group bigger than the rooms defeats the purpose. When they're gone, they're gone.
Because the math doesn't get better later. The founding rate is the lowest price this studio will ever carry, and it's locked for as long as you're a member, so you're not saving on month one, you're saving every month you stay. The trade is simple and we'd rather say it plainly than bury it: you commit before the doors open, and the rate holds because you stay. If you'd rather go month-to-month with no commitment, that option will exist after we open. It will just cost more.
Your card is charged once when you join. Your monthly billing cycle starts the day you take your first class at Chelsea, not before. If the date moves, everything moves with it: billing, your private session window, your membership term. Every date in your agreement is anchored to the studio's actual opening day. Construction in Manhattan is construction in Manhattan; we've built two studios before, and we'd rather tell you that now than in an apology email later. A delay costs you nothing.
Within three months of the studio's opening date. The window exists so the sessions actually get used instead of sitting on instructors' calendars as open credits.If something comes up (travel, injury, a schedule that won't cooperate), email us before your three months are up and we'll work with you. Requests after the window closes are much harder to honor, so tell us early rather than late.
Every regularly scheduled class in both of our class studios, the Hot Room (mat, sculpt, strength, stretch and movement) and the Tower Room (premium contemporary Pilates for modern movement), at 541 6th Avenue. All formats, on every founding tier. That's unusual, and it's deliberate: we didn't want founding members doing mental math about which class costs what.
What it doesn't cover: our Private Room (one-on-one personal training and private sessions) or discounts on them, plus workshops and special events, and any space we might add later. Founding rates are tied to this address.
All three tiers give you access to both rooms. All Access 8 and All Access 12 include 8 or 12 group classes a month, used in either room, hot or tower, your choice. All Access Unlimited includes unlimited classes in either room, up to one class per day.
Your first month is paid when you reserve your founding membership. That's what holds your rate. Your billing cycle doesn't start until you take your first class, so nothing else comes out until you're actually in the room.
Just activate within 100 days of signing up by taking that first class. If our opening runs past that, we'll extend it. You'll never lose time because we needed more of it.
We accept credit card or ACH for founding memberships in NYC. Credit card payments carry a processing fee; ACH is exempt from it. Either way, we'll need one on file set up for auto-renew.
We'll keep you posted the whole way, and your founding rate is held regardless. And because New York law requires us to say it out loud: if we're not open within a year of you signing up, you can void your agreement and get every dollar back. That's not going to happen, but you should know it's there.
Founding pricing closes the day we open.
Founding memberships carry a three-month minimum from your first class. After that, cancel any time with no fee and no notice period: through your account on our website, by email at nyc@kenpilates.com, by phone, or in person at the front desk. Whatever's easiest. Your membership runs through the end of the month you've already paid for.
The one thing worth knowing first: cancelling ends your founding rate, and we can't bring it back. You're always welcome to rejoin, just at whatever our rates are then.
Yes. Up to 30 days, once a calendar year, for a $25 hold fee, and your founding rate is held the whole time you're out. Just ask at least 3 days before your billing date; we can't backdate a pause once it's gone through. If a membership ends up paused for more than 30 days in a 12-month period, the founding rate ends and picks back up at our current rate for that tier.
Just tell us. Take your 30-day pause, no doctor's note needed, and your rate is held while you're out. If you need longer than that, or a doctor has told you that you can't do Pilates for more than three months, New York law gives you the right to cancel outright, so send us the note and we'll refund anything you've paid ahead, minus classes you've already taken. And if you're pregnant and still practising, our instructors modify within class; a private session is the best place to start.
Yes. A higher founding tier starts on your next billing date, and you keep founding pricing on it, so if you want more classes six months in, that door stays open. One thing to be clear about: upgrading only goes one way. Once you move up, you can't move back down to a lower tier and keep your founding rate. Downgrading releases the founding rate for good, and you'd return only at our regular pricing. You can always grow into a bigger plan, but you can't shrink back into a smaller one, so pick the tier that fits the practice you want now, knowing there's room above it.
Your first month is still yours. Come in whenever and we'll honour it, there's no expiry on the month you've paid for. What lapses is the founding rate itself: after that first month, there's no renewal at founding pricing. We don't refund an unused month, but it stays on your account as credit toward anything we offer, and the cancellation rights above always apply.
The hot room is our heated mat studio, with up to 30 spots per class. The tower room is apparatus-based and capped at 16, a smaller and more hands-on class.
Founding members can cancel or change a class up to 6 hours before it starts with no penalty, versus the standard 12-hour window. Inside that window it's a $20 late cancellation fee, and a no-show is $40.
Yes, one guest pass a month.
They don't. Your classes reset on your billing date each month. If you've had an unusual month, tell us; we can usually push one or two forward.
Join one waitlist per day. If a spot opens we'll add you automatically and let you know, up until 2 hours before class. Once you're in, the normal 12-hour window applies from the moment you're added, so if you no longer want it, drop it straight away and someone else can take it.
Stay with us. That's really it. Your rate holds for as long as your membership stays continuously active. The things that end it: cancelling, a payment we can't collect within 14 days, moving down to a lower tier, pausing for more than 30 days in a 12-month period, or letting someone else use your membership. Nothing else, and nothing hidden.
It's yours alone. That includes partners and family, and it can't be sold, gifted or transferred. We may ask for photo ID at check-in. Bring them as your guest instead, or grab them a drop-in; we'd love to meet them.
