JOHN TAGGART/JOHN TAGGART FOR NEW YORK DAILY
Gaz Leah, the director of Business Development at the Cliffs at Long Island City, walks a tightrope at the soon-to-be-opened climbing gym. It will be one of the largest indoor, climbing gyms when it opens.
Rock on.
One of the country’s largest indoor climbing gyms is finally slated to open next week in Queens.
The Cliffs at Long Island City had been delayed after one of the owners, Mike Wolfert, was arrested on charges he tried to bribe city inspectors to speed up the unveiling.
The sprawling gym on 44th Dr. was supposed to open in May. It will now welcome vertical adventurers Oct. 5.
“The response has been way better than our projections,” Wolfert said of the monthly memberships that have begun pouring in. “Climbing is just such a unique way to get fit.”
Those who don’t fear heights can figure out how to get to the top of the 30,000-square-foot former warehouse, which cost about $5 million to renovate.
The facility allows climbers to clip ropes into the walls as they shimmy up or down or have trained people on the ground holding the ropes.
“You often find yourself in yoga poses on the wall, “ said Wolfert.
There is also a ropeless area with thick mats underneath a 16-foot high wall.
“You’re continually challenging yourself to push your limits of what you think you can do,” Wolfert, who owns a similar gym in Valhalla, N.Y.
But the avid climber is accused of bribing an undercover investigator who posed as a city buildings inspector to get the permits he needed to continue construction.
RELATED: TWO INDOOR CLIMBING GYMS TO OPEN IN LIC
Wolfert said he could give him “cash or whatever” to get around a city stop work order and gave the investigator $94 in bribes, according to court papers.
When the investigator said the problem was taken care of, Wolfert allegedly handed him two envelopes, each stuffed with $500 in cash.
He is due back in court on Nov. 22, said a spokesperson for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
“I have a very different interpretation of the events,” said Wolfert, who faces seven years behind bars.
“Everything in the facility is built to or above code,” he said.
But the legal woes aren’t expected to dissuade die-hard climbers from scaling the 45-foot walls at the Cliffs, said climbing junkies.
“There’s still a line-up of people that want to climb over there,” said Manuel Labindao, who organizes events for the NYC Hiking and Outdoor Adventure Group.
And the Cliffs won’t be the only game in town for long.
Brooklyn Boulders, a popular climbing gym in Gowanus, is also planning on expanding into Long Island City, company officials previously told the News.
“The sport got way more popular,” said scaler Goran Stankovic, 34, of Astoria. “Existing climbing gyms right now are overcrowded. You have to wait sometimes 15, 20 minutes — or even half an hour — to even start climbing.”
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