Construction crews are nearing the midpoint of a major expansion at Bend Rock Gym, an indoor climbing gym north of Reed Market Road, near Southeast Ninth Street.

The plan is to expand owner Jim Stone’s 7,000-square-foot facility into a 20,000-square-foot, two-building gym, complete with new, higher climbing walls.

Stone said crews have been working at the expansion site, adjacent to the existing gym, since early this summer.

They recently installed a series of steel beams roughly 50 feet high, that will support the new building. They’ll start building the walls and structure of the new gym early next month.

“That’s when it will really start looking like a building,” Stone said.

The goal is to finish the expansion by the end of the year.

“I’m hoping for November,” he said, “but it’s probably going to be December, and it could go into January or February depending on where things are going.” The existing gym building has been open during construction.

Stone first proposed the gym expansion late last year, filing planning documents and blueprints with the city of Bend.

The blueprints include plans for a bridge that would connect the two buildings, and possibly a new access road connecting to Paiute Way.

The existing gym was at full capacity, and Stone said he wanted to add newer, more challenging climbing routes.

Bend Rock Gym

1170 S.E. Centennial Court, Bend

Owner: Jim Stone, Bend

Contractor: Empire Construction and Development, Bend