Rest, Relaxation and Recovery Coming at Rivers Edge

A new spa and wellness center is coming to Durango. It's located in a familiar space, 1521 Maine, which is the same building the old Woodhouse Day Spa occupied. You're watching the Local News Network brought to you by San Juan Regional Medical Center and M&R Plumbing. I'm Connor Shrieve. Husband and wife J.D. and Ashley Sutton hope to expand on the services their previous business, Mountain Beauty Med Spa offered with a focus on locals.

So we kind of came together and thought that if we can create sort of a bit of an oasis here in Durango, but for locals offering locals discount and then for the athletes to offer an athletic recovery area that has sort of leg compressions or electric shock for the muscles and infrared sauna, cold bath, and an area just for those individuals in town that just want a nice recovery area by the river.

Since acquiring the building, Sutton has been in overdrive renovating and preparing the space to open, which he hopes will be October 1st. The previous tenant terminated its lease with the building owners two days before he officially bought the property. That means there are untold amounts of unused Woodhouse gift cards circulating. Sutton says he wants to do something for those customers.

But we want to do something. So we have to look at like what's some of the least expense overhead for us that we can offer someone for these gift cards. My wife, of course, can do facials so, you know, she can certainly just take time of her day. Of course, she can't do it every day to everyone with a gift card, but maybe we'll do a couple a month, a couple per quarter, and just kind of schedule those out.

In their four years living in Durango, Ashley Sutton worked as an ICU nurse and an aesthetician. The duo's vision is to offer an experience broader than the typical spa.

People can come and get a massage, they can... We're going to put a salt room in, we're going to have potentially a float pod deprivation tank. We'll have the infrared or people can go to the sauna and then eventually, hopefully, fingers crossed, we can work with the city to create a bar lounge on the roof overlooking the river.

Sutton says he knew Durango had a special community when he first visited. He wants River's Edge Wellness to be a part of that community.

We're here to support the community, and the community supports us in the off season, during pandemics, during fires, during events. You know, when the tourists don't come in, how do the business stay alive? They stay alive with the locals and that's what we want to have our foundation. We still, of course, will cater to visitors and we want to show them how great Durango is and great services and spas and recovery rooms. But you know, it's truly the local and the communities that's going to be the foundation for us.

River's Edge Wellness Center will open on October 1st before celebrating its grand opening November 2nd. You can see the full list of services online. Find more information about this and other stories at durangolocal.news. Thanks for watching this edition of The Local News Network. I'm Connor Shrieve.