Former New Orleans church has become hub for holistic health | Innovation

The Norwegian Seamen’s Church at 1772 Prytania St. was built in 1968 to provide a home away from home for sailors in New Orleans. Later, it became a haven for jazz musicians.

Now, the midcentury modern complex has been transformed into a gathering place for an entirely new community. 

In 2021, sisters Diana Fisher, Deborah Peters and Kendall Winingder reopened the former church’s doors and welcomed customers to Spyre, a holistic health center providing mental health services, physical therapy, yoga, exercise classes and other wellness services on a campus that includes a saltwater pool, meditation garden and farm-to-table cafe.

The siblings and business partners were inspired to build a community based on holistic health — an approach to care that considers the whole body — in a city known more for living well than wellness itself.

“We provide an alternative to going somewhere and having bottomless mimosas,” Peters said.

Four years after its debut, Spyre has become a profitable enterprise with multiple revenue streams that contribute to a much bigger economic river: the $2 trillion global wellness industry, which is growing by roughly 5% a year in the U.S., according to consulting firm McKinsey.

Spyre has more than 250 members, who pay anywhere from $95-$289 a month for access to an array of offerings. 

Guests can sign up for a session on the “dry float bed,” a device imported from Europe that creates the sensation of floating on water to help shut down the senses for improved meditation. Or they can opt for time in the cold plunge tub, designed to reduce inflammation, boost metabolism and increase alertness.

After a yoga class, they can sit poolside at The Well Cafe and sip organic smoothies.

Nonmembers can buy day passes or drop-in classes that begin at $18. Spyre’s founders said they intentionally keep prices below market rate.

“The wellness industry is very elite, very expensive and very white,” Fisher said. “We’re trying to make this accessible to a wide variety of community members.”

A holistic home

The inspiration for Spyre came during a crisis.

Eight years ago, at age 34, Fisher received a breast cancer diagnosis that completely upended her life. In response, she curated a treatment plan that combined traditional medicine with acupuncture, yoga, massage, lymphatic drainage and other holistic therapies.

“Everything you could do, I did,” Fisher said.

During the process, she found it hard to coordinate care, share information between providers and find a sense of community, so she decided to create her own.

Fisher and her sisters — who share her interest in holistic medicine — dreamed up the idea of a wellness hub that would bring many services under one roof. It would serve people dealing with serious health challenges as well as those wanting to embrace healthier living in general.

The sisters all have an entrepreneurial streak. Peters created and sold a film equipment company in Los Angeles. Fisher co-owns the Tibetan House store and meditation room on Tchoupitoulas Street. And Winingder helped found Sugar Roots Farm, a nonprofit outdoor classroom in Lower Algiers.

The family’s background in real estate helped kick-start the process.

The sisters’ father, Tom Winingder, moved to New Orleans in the late 1970s and helped develop some of the best-known local real estate projects of the last half century, including Canal Place, The Windsor Court and the Jazzland amusement park.

Kendall Winingder is a designer at Felicity Property Co., a real estate firm that specializes in historic preservation and urban development chaired by her father. Her husband, Patrick Schindler, is the president of the company, which is headquartered across Urania Street from Spyre.

Leaning on this real estate acumen, the sisters purchased the former Norwegian Seamen’s Church property in 2019 for an undisclosed sum and began a multimillion-dollar renovation that continued through the pandemic. The project required a zoning change and benefited from historic tax credits due to the building’s age and status as a historic landmark.

“That designation meant we couldn’t change a lot of things, but that’s OK,” Fisher said. “We’ve maximized every inch of the space in a very creative way.”

No bathrobes or Botox

On a recent rainy weekday, the lobby of Spyre was buzzing with activity despite the calm created by the neutral-toned wood floors and ceilings, cream-colored brick walls, and well-placed greenery.

A couple of employees were working at the check-in desk in front of a wall of glass providing a view of the meditation garden and saltwater pool in the courtyard.

Outside, steady rain was falling, but three women were dry under a patio cover as they gathered around a laptop at a cafe table.

Separated by a partition from the lobby, the church’s former chapel was waiting to host its next exercise class. A cart with colorful hand weights stood at the entrance. An ultramodern crystal chandelier hung over the church’s former altar, glowing like a portal to another dimension.

Anyone entering this scene would be forgiven for assuming they were in a luxurious spa straight out of the HBO show “The White Lotus.” But Peters said they would be mistaken.

“It looks so beautiful here, so sometimes people get a little confused and they want a bathrobe and some slippers,” Peters said. “But you come here to do work. We’re not doing Botox.”

Instead, she said, Spyre is for people who want to pursue well-being through connections between mental health, physical health and nutrition.

“We all firmly believe in medicine and science,” Peters said. “But we know this living breathing organism of ourselves is all connected.” 

Multiple revenue streams

Besides selling memberships and charging à la carte fees to drop-in customers, Spyre generates revenue by renting office space to health and wellness providers, whose private practices are located at the center.

Currently, about 18 mental health professionals, physical therapists and other practitioners are based on the campus, creating a synergy that benefits the center and the practitioners as well as the clients of each.

“We provide the lobby, but we don’t reschedule an appointment,” Peters said. “We don’t know patients’ personal information.”

Spyre has its own team of about 30 instructors — all independent contractors — who teach yoga, Pilates, high-intensity interval training and meditation. 

The center also hosts special events, including wellness retreats, weddings, and book signings. A comedy show recently used the former church altar as a stage.

The facility partners with hotels in the neighborhood — including the Henry Howard Hotel, Hotel Saint Vincent, and The Blackbird Hotel — to provide services for guests, including pool passes, with one important caveat:

“We are not a ‘hang out and drink by the pool’ place,” Peters said. “That’s not our vibe.”

‘Sweet spot’

The sisters said their four-year-old enterprise is in a sweet spot. They make enough money to cover expenses without paying for advertising. And, unlike many New Orleans businesses, Spyre won’t be brutally slow during the summer.

Some out-of-town guests have even encouraged them to expand or franchise the concept, but that’s not at the top of the to-do list.

“We’re not doing this to get rich off of people’s vulnerabilities in their health journey,” Fisher said. “We’re doing it as an act of love and a gift to our community. … We want to be a touchstone for people.”