Base

Been here a full year now. Some fine-tuning occurred since joining 8/2015, thus the five stars. I looked at several clubs and with Base, there was no pressure to sign-up. The membership director, Cesar, even let me come in to see over a few days versus one work out (like other clubs). They also honored a special that had expired the previous day. This integrity put me at over 50% probability of joining.

In terms of pros: gym is indeed one of cleanest, if not THE cleanest I've worked out in. There is a lot of high quality, latest/state-of-the-art equipment. Stations/areas can naturally get crowded at peak times, but manageable. Broken equipment is fixed within the hour, unless a special part is needed. Weights are put back into their areas fairly quickly by staff if members leave about. They have an area for "BaseCamp", which I compare to a CrossFit kind of training area, and is very useful if you are training for ToughMudder or Spartan Race kind of stuff. I've not taken every class, but the ones I have are excellent. I've never felt uncomfortable for not knowing a yoga pose or how to adjust the spin bike; the instructors actually go out and show you how to do it (as opposed to shaming you). The owner is frequently on site and listens to feedback from members, no matter how asinine it could be. He increased amount of equipment and created more space based upon member input; he also put in teakwood showers and lockless lockers based on feedback. As for personal training, want to mention I was skeptical of my trainer when I signed up for it, and when I showed up, BASE had fired him before I'd started, assigning me to another. I mention this fact because they were 100% transparent, which is important in terms of ever feeling screwed. Training itself? I had an excellent trainer name James who gradually made me stronger and faster. There is an excellent juice bar/snack bar, as well as on-site BaseBody Spa and a doctor/nutrition consultant office on-site. Base also provides for two free hours of validated parking in the garage next door. Finally, Base has an app that sends notifications about class cancellations, hours, etc.--which is actually quite useful.

The cons: Mostly 1st World problems....no more sliced lemons or cucumbers in the ice water dispenser. Does make a difference between and upscale and meh atmosphere. Fewer towel racks, thus fewer towels available. Removal of one counter in locker room makes the remaining two more crowded. Wifi needs to be re-calibrated or upgraded to meet peak club usage demand. More cognizance of people spending A LOT of time on phones while at a machine whilst others are waiting. I can take care of that myself, but would be useful to enforce as a policy and not let it escalate between members. I've had a couple of problems with the garage staff and validation, security, etc., but that's not really a club problem. Just beware if you park there--like anywhere else.

Overall, I recommend Base without reservation.

I've been going here for about 5 months now, and I have to say I'm very happy with it. The atmosphere is very nice, the equipment is well kept and clean, and the staff are friendly. It has never been too packed when I've been there, perhaps because there are so many different areas of the gym. Aside from the main weights section, there is a machine area, a room for classes, a room with tires, ropes, and that sort of equipment, a spin studio, and a yoga / mind & body studio. Most of the second floor is dedicated to cardio equipment, of which they have pretty much any machine you can think of. They just recently opened "BaseBody" as well, which is their in-house massage studio. The locker rooms are nice, with steam rooms, saunas, showers, and complimentary lockers.

As far as cons, the first I'd say is that the juice bar is quite expensive. The only other problem I've come across is that there aren't many weight benches by the dumbbells, so they are almost always taken. I think that a couple more could definitely be squeezed in. Overall, I'm very happy with Base and think I found the best gym in downtown Jersey City.

It's an ok gym. They tell you they're upscale... but alas, they're just not. They could be... if they'd just fix their machines (e.g. 1 in 4 of the elipticals always seem to be messed up, the bars on chin up stations always need fixing, the hadngrips on the dumbells they use in the classes are always coming apart...the ventilation in the gym is ... well... let's just say you should bring a gas mask if you show up after some of the afternoon classes. They've got a crossfit room that could be great - except they don't include it. That costs extra. OK, but a shame.

Nice gym, friendly staff. They have a lot of free weight, more than 3 squat cages and plenty of pull-up stations. Clean towels on every floor, great number of cardio machines. The men's locker room has every thing you need from towel, mouthwash, razor, hair dryer and a big tank of ice water.
The gym is not very crowded during the day time. However, there are some people doing circuit training take over all the squat cages and benches. They'd take a lot of time using those, scream, make noise and never put the dumbbells away after finishing. I didn't expect those people at this kind of expensive gym that why I stayed away from the other gyms, but still.

the upstairs cardio area is so unventilated it feels like a sauna. Please god how hard is it to just get some fans. The wifi speed is regularly at zero, and they always claim there is no problem with it. For people who bill themselves as a "luxury" gym they kind of miss the basics.