ROK SPAS expands beyond Denver after first year, touts contrast therapy success

ROK SPAS is moving beyond Denver after just its first year, a sign that contrast therapy has become more than a novelty at the city’s first luxury Nordic spa. The company announced on April 29 that it plans a new facility in 2027, leaning on a flagship that it says has already proved the model can draw enough demand to grow.

At 2025 17th St. near Union Station, ROK SPAS has built its identity around scale and temperature range. The spa says its cedar sauna seats 40 guests and runs at 194°F, while five cold plunges span 37°F to 55°F. ROK calls that range its edge, pitching the lower end to elite athletes and the warmer end to newcomers who want a less brutal entry into the plunge. The company also says the site includes a 30-person eucalyptus steam room, guided contrast-therapy circuits led by recovery specialists, and both water and air systems maintained across every modality.

That positioning matters because ROK is not selling a single cold tub tucked into a gym corner. It is selling a full circuit experience, and the broader wellness market has taken notice. Visit Denver lists ROK SPAS as Denver’s first luxury Nordic spa with the largest sauna in Colorado, while ResortPass has also put the spa into the kind of bookable-destination lane that helps turn a local recovery room into a tourism stop. A 5280 review in February 2026 described the site as Denver’s largest custom-built sauna and framed the experience as moving between sauna, steam, plunge tubs, and thermal soaks over two hours.

Founder Malia Makaila has tied the expansion to that response, saying the company bet Colorado would embrace serious contrast therapy at scale and that the demand now supports growth beyond the original market. ROK’s own marketing adds to the case: the brand says it is Colorado’s most complete contrast-therapy facility and the only Denver Nordic spa with five cold plunges spanning 37°F to 55°F. The company was also named Mindbody’s Best Health and Wellness Brand of 2025, a useful stamp for a business trying to move from cult-favorite status into regional play.

The franchise page suggests that ambition goes well past one more location. ROK SPAS lists minimum qualifications of $250,000 in liquid capital and $1 million in net worth, a clear signal that it sees the sauna-and-plunge format as something that can be packaged, financed, and repeated. For a category that still often gets treated like a luxury add-on, ROK is making a sharper argument: if the room is big enough, the temperature ladder is wide enough, and the brand feels distinct enough, contrast therapy can become a scalable wellness business.