A specialist leisure business to take space formerly occupied by department store group John Lewis.
Indoor adventure park operator Flip Out is to open in the Atria Watford shopping centre. It will comprise 33,000 sq ft of activities such as a “ninja playground”, “high tech dodgems”, drift trikes and donut slides, as well as a Laser Quest.
The change is representative of a shift towards leisure activities as well as traditional retail in many shopping centres.
Atria Watford – formerly an Intu centre and now owned by SGS – is already home to leisure attractions such as climbing arena Rock Up, Puttshack, Escape Hunt and Boom Battle Bar, as well as retailers including Marks & Spencer, Next and Zara.
John Lewis shut the Watford store and other branches in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Global Mutual head of European retail asset management Steve Gray said: “Experiences now sit at the core of retail. Guests no longer visit our centres simply to shop – footfall is driven by the offer of a day out, with a strong leisure and hospitality offer central to this. This is why we’re delighted to see Flip Out join the Atria Watford line-up.”
Flip Out parent We Do Play co-owner Richard Beese said: “The team is over the moon to be launching in Atria Watford, transforming the sizeable John Lewis unit into a centre of adrenaline-fuelled attractions.
“We have seen what a key role [attractions] play in the footfall of shopping centres – families who are heading to the shops and pop into Flip Out after, or families who are heading to Flip Out but may visit some of the retailers on their way home.”
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