Game on for Activate as it makes regional debut at Harlequin Watford
Immersive gaming concept Activate has opened its third venue outside of London at Harlequin Watford, making its regional debut.
The operator has taken a 15,592 sq ft unit, offering technology-driven challenges, interactive game rooms, enhanced with lasers, grids, hoops, portals and reaction-based challenges. The games are tailored for a variety of groups, including friends, families, birthday parties, and corporate teams.
Activate joins an evolving leisure offering at Harlequin Watford, which includes operators such as Cineworld, Boom Battle Bar, and Flip Out.
Rich Beese, co-founder of We Do Play, said: “The arrival of Activate at Harlequin is a pivotal time in the brand’s growth, as one of the first branches outside of London. With its impressive footfall from a broad catchment, we are certain that this branch in Watford will be well received as competitive socialising concepts offer something fresh and continue to grow in demand.”
Robert Jewell, managing director of asset management at Pradera, said: “As Activate officially joins our evolving portfolio of leisure tenants, it affirms Harlequin’s position as the region’s premier all-day destination for shopping, dining and leisure. The immersive gaming concept joins as we are seeing strong performance of our competitive socialising options, signalling the scheme’s success as an all-day destination.”
The opening follows the recent launch of Chop & Wok at Harlequin, as the scheme evolves its F&B and leisure options in line with increasing demand.
Time Retail and LM are Harlequin’s retail leasing agents, while Metis and LM lead on leisure leasing. Pradera asset manages Lakeside on behalf of SGS UK Retail. LM acted for Activate.