Float spa to open soon in Belle View

A nationwide floatation therapy center known as True Rest Float Spa is targeting the end of August to open a franchise at Belle View Shopping Center.

Co-owned by Deleep Nair and his wife Amber, the spa will enable customers to book 60-minute floating sessions in pods containing 10 inches of water with 1,000 pounds of Epsom salt. Floatation therapy has both mental and physical health benefits, according to Nair, including reduced muscle tension and pain, improved joint mobility, lowered blood pressure, enhanced athletic performance and increased circulation.

Credit: True Rest Float Spa

Nair said he first was exposed to floatation therapy in 2016 during a visit to Sedona, Arizona. A few years later, he tried it again in Charlotte, North Carolina, had another “amazing experience” and solid night’s sleep, and decided to explore franchise opportunities. While True Rest has 70 locations throughout the country, the Belle View spa will be the first one in the Washington, D.C. area.

Several aspects of the neighborhood, including the unique businesses at the shopping center, proximity to Belle Haven County Club and access to Old Town Alexandria, appealed to Nair and his wife.

“We saw a number of site locations throughout Maryland and Virginia in our location search,” said Nair. “Many of them were nice but did not jump out to us from a community and neighborhood point of view. When we first came to Belle View, we immediately looked at each other and felt like this was the right location.”

Transforming a former BB&T Bank into a spa wasn’t much different from other retail buildouts, said Nair, with the exception of the bank’s safe — a structure with concrete walls reinforced with steel bars. The safe enclosure was built first, according to Nair, and the rest of the building was built around it. This made it particularly difficult to remove.

“The demolition of the safe took close to three weeks with heavy duty machinery to drill through the reinforced walls,” he said. “It is certainly not something I would want to go through again!”

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Once the new floatation center is complete, the owners plan to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony in conjunction with the Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce. The spa is currently offering a pre-opening special on gift cards.

True Rest Float Spa is located at 1640 Belle View Boulevard, and its hours will be Mondays, 4 – 10 p.m. and Tuesdays through Sundays, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.