FX Physical Therapy to add Eldersburg, Gambrills offices - Baltimore Business Journal

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The provider got its start partnering with gyms. Now, it is making the move to Under Armour's new headquarters and adding two other offices to its footprint.

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A Hunt Valley-based physical therapy company is opening in Under Armour Inc.'s new headquarters and has plans for two new clinics as demand for rehabilitative services grows.

FX Physical Therapy will move an office into Under Armour's new Baltimore Peninsula headquarters in December, exclusively for Under Armour employees, and will follow that up with new public clinics in Eldersburg and Waugh Chapel in Gambrills. The Under Armour clinic is a continuation of its corporate practice at the apparel maker's current Locust Point headquarters. The two public clinics are slated to open in December and February and continue a fast expansion for founder and owner Jerod Felice's practice as physical therapy gains popularity among athletes young and old.

"The movement is away from traditional medicine, which is like pills, injections and surgeries," Felice told the Baltimore Business Journal in an interview. "People want to get better in more natural ways, and physical therapy is a great resource for the population to heal and get better."

As medicine improves and athletes young and old stay active for longer, physical therapy has become an important piece of remaining healthy. FX Physical Therapy has long-standing relationships with gyms where it has opened clinics, including Coppermine and Players Fitness & Performance. Those partnerships have provided a low-cost, small-footprint way for the company to expand in addition to the standalone clinics Felice has opened.

FX has grown "exponentially" since its first Hunt Valley clinic opened in 2015, and the company is now pacing at 30% growth year over year, Felice said.

"From an orthopedic and sports medicine standpoint, the gym relationship is great. Because one, we do have a captive audience just with the gym members. Two, we don't take a huge footprint inside of a gym, because then we can use all the equipment that they have to rehab our patients," Felice said.

FX currently has 12 co-located clinics and four standalone ones along with corporate clinics at Under Armour and another for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue team in Virginia. The Eldersburg and Gambrills clinics will be FX's 17th and 18th public offices. Eldersburg will be co-located with a Players Fitness & Performance gym, and Gambrills will be a standalone clinic. Though investment and staffing vary across locations, Felice said the clinics typically have six to eight physical therapists and four to six support staff along with employees for marketing, operations and billing.

Felice isn't done expanding, either. He intends to grow outside of Greater Baltimore and said the Washington, D.C., area and Delaware could make sense as landing spots if the right opportunities open up and allow FX to grow "in a disciplined fashion."

For now, the localized model allows Felice's company to stay connected across offices and build relationships on staff. FX recently held a field day at Under Armour's turf field with more than 70 employees. As sports like pickleball become popular across all age groups, he doesn't expect the demand for FX's services to slow down, either.

The numbers back up Felice's optimism. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the number of physical therapists will grow by 14% while physical therapist assistants and aides will grow by 19% by 2033.

"Physical therapy has done a great job of promoting itself and becoming more of a leading force in medicine, and with that continued message of 'movement as medicine,' as we say, I don't think that's going to change in the near future," he said.