Yoga Loft opens new studio and café in Gunbarrel

Calming, strengthening, healing, energizing, balancing, and clarifying are some of the primary benefits of practicing yoga. Jeff Bailey loves that his livelihood allows him the opportunity to help people improve their lives through yoga and he’s utterly passionate about it.

Bailey has been a yoga instructor for 33 years. Growing up in Gunnison, CO, Bailey took his first yoga class when he was 22 years old, and it instantly felt transformative and vital to him. He was captivated by the functional side of yoga, as well as the spiritual side.

Since Bailey and his wife, Lori Kemmet DDS, opened Yoga Loft in south Boulder five years ago, the studio has become a thriving business. Bailey and Kemmet foresaw the need for a second location to serve the community to the north. In April, they quietly opened Yoga Loft Gunbarrel in the Gunbarrel Shopping Center.

Initially the new business was going to be only half of its final size. Bailey said he simply took a “leap of faith” because one day he woke up and visualized it occupying the building’s entire 4200 square feet. The owners worked with their long-time yoga client and architect, Peter Heinz of PEH Architects of Boulder to gut the space that had housed the Page Two Café for more than 20 years.

Construction took nearly four months. The overhaul resulted in an airy, light-filled reception area and beyond that, a spacious hallway heading to two roomy yoga studios which can be made into one space by opening the center doors. The rooms are remarkably serene and pleasantly glare-free because there are no mirrors. But what does draw the eye are sets of yoga mats and bolsters perfectly lined up along each wall, like little nests waiting to be filled.

Bailey chose Dollamur for the flooring - a half-inch, high-density foam covered with a woodgrain colored laminate. It gives extra support to joints and offers a soft foundation.

The new business has something that’s unique for a yoga studio, but is completely appropriate for this location given the previous tenant… an adjacent café.

The Up Dog Café is open to the public too. It specializes in healthy fare such as blended smoothies, homemade granolas, Kombucha and Tip Top Savory Pies (from Gunbarrel). Baked goods from LaBelle French Bakery and Button Rock Bakery are available. Two Gunbarrel-based beverage providers are featured: The Tea Spot and Ampersand Coffee Roasters, who created an Up Dog house blend. Patrizia Maziali, director of the original Yoga Loft location, will take on managing the new studio as well as the café.

The studio is a fit for all levels of yoga clients and offers a variety of class styles. In addition to Yin Yoga, Vinyasa, Restorative Yoga, Yoga with weights, and Kundalini style yoga, Yoga Loft specializes in Kaiut yoga. Yoga Loft’s website describes Kaiut Yoga as bringing “areas of rigidity to light so we can focus our efforts on them to slow down the aging process and create more freedom in the mind and body.”

Bailey said he will be evolving Kaiut Yoga into what will become the studio’s signature style, to be renamed Avita Yoga. He’s working with Luciana Ross, one of the founders of Kaiut, to develop this healing modality of yoga which works gently through a series of prescribed poses.

“It will feel new, but it will still be familiar to practitioners,” Bailey said. “As an Avita instructor, I’m able to totally focus on each person in the room. Each person has their own unique experience during the class and it can be modified according to their needs.”

He tells the story of a new student brought in by his wife, a longtime client. Having recently done a rim-to-rim run of the Grand Canyon, he was dealing with serious hip stiffness and lower back pain. Setting his reluctance aside, he came to a class, experienced immediate results, and has signed on to continue classes.

Bailey also holds teacher training certification programs for Avita style yoga and hosts annual teaching retreats to Costa Rica. He said the studio has a devoted team of instructors and will be hiring three or four more “really solid and dedicated” instructors.

“The cornerstone of a good instructor is that they are kind and they care,” Bailey said. “Customer service is my favorite thing and as a yoga teacher. It’s all about service and taking care of people.”

The studio is running an introductory special of $30 for 30 consecutive days with unlimited access. Memberships will give clients access to both studios, and there are many pricing options for classes, including drop-in pricing, 10 or 20-class packs, as well as monthly and corporate memberships.

Already open for classes, Yoga Loft’s grand opening will be held Friday through Sunday, June 29-July 1. All classes will be free that weekend and everyone who comes to visit will receive a free give-away item.

For information and a class schedule, visit http://www.YogaLoftBoulder.com and select the Gunbarrel location. The studio is located at 6565 Gunpark Drive, Unit 108, in the Gunbarrel Shopping Center.