New York Loves Yoga returns to Upper West Side studio after fire
After a 2025 fire, New York Loves Yoga reopened on West 83rd Street, bringing a 15-year Upper West Side practice hub back home.
New York Loves Yoga is back in its old home at 140 West 83rd Street, and for Upper West Side regulars that means the return of a familiar place to roll out a mat, see a teacher and catch up with neighbors. The studio reopened on June 1 after spending months out of its own space following a fire that hit the building in October 2025. For MJ Watkins and Lucas Hall, who have run the studio for 14 years, the comeback lands as both a recovery and a milestone in the studio’s 15th year.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m. on October 27, 2025, at the four-story brownstone between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues. FDNY said the flames started in the building’s lobby, and local coverage reported that no injuries were recorded. The damage was heavy enough to push the yoga studio out of its longtime address and into a stretch of makeshift operations while the block absorbed the disruption. A GoFundMe was launched in November as the studio worked through the fallout.
New York Loves Yoga did not disappear during the closure. It first held classes at Momentum Fitness on Columbus Avenue and then used a temporary home on West 80th Street before returning to 140 West 83rd Street. The studio also temporarily relocated to Momentum Fitness at 246 Columbus Avenue near West 72nd Street on November 2, 2025. That chain of stopgaps kept the community together, with support from Momentum Fitness, the FDNY, neighboring yoga businesses and the studio’s own students and teachers helping preserve the rhythm of classes while the permanent space was being restored.
The move back matters because New York Loves Yoga has long functioned as more than a workout room. Its own website again lists the address as 140 W 83rd St., Garden Level, between Columbus and Amsterdam, and says the studio hosts classes, music events, fundraisers, spa days, yoga parties, meditation retreats and teacher-training-related offerings through Zuna Yoga. Back on its original block, the studio is once again part of a building that houses multiple businesses, and part of the neighborhood identity that went quiet when the lobby fire pushed it out.
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