Sandbox VR, Select Hammerson’s Grand Central First UK Location Outside of London - Retail & Leisure International

Hammerson has signed the world’s most advanced virtual world experience, Sandbox VR, arsenic portion of its imaginativeness to diversify the usage of Grand Central successful the bosom of Birmingham and an ambitious strategy to reinvigorate its assets done caller brands, entertainment, and experiential concepts.

The 13,000 sq ft portion – acceptable to unfastened this summer – is the brand’s 3rd successful Europe and largest to date. This signing supports Sandbox VR’s plans to grow crossed the UK and Ireland, while elevating the experiential connection astatine Hammerson’s Bullring & Grand Central, in-line with the wider improvement of the destination.

Taking radical virtual world gameplay and competitive socialising to the adjacent level, Sandbox VR creates a genuinely immersive experience wrong exclusively designed interactive worlds, making players feel like they are surviving wrong a crippled oregon a movie. The unmatched escapade is powered by a caller procreation of Hollywood question seizure cameras, 3D precision full-body trackers, customized hardware and haptic feedback suits, enhancing the touch, vibration, and question senses for the user.

Alongside its ground-breaking gameplay, Sandbox VR Birmingham is acceptable to see the brand’s much-loved robotic bartender ‘Toni’. Shaking, stirring and serving up to 80 drinks per hour, Toni adds different unsocial acquisition to Grand Central’s unmatched hospitality and leisure offering.

Toby Tait, Director Asset Management, Hammerson, said: “The signing of Sandbox VR is different large leap guardant successful the diversification and repositioning of our Birmingham estate. This is going to be a transformative twelvemonth for Bullring & Grand Central with experiential brands and innovative concepts that prosecute and excite our customers. We are being bolder and much ambitious successful our attack arsenic we enactment to make a truly multi-use destination that we and the metropolis tin beryllium arrogant of.”

Jake Wilmot-Sitwell, Co-Founder and COO at Sandbox VR UK & Ireland, commented: “Following our palmy motorboat successful Covent Garden past year, we wanted to footwear disconnected our enlargement crossed the UK and Ireland by launching the biggest ever Sandbox VR tract successful the UK’s 2nd city. As the West Midlands’ best-connected retail and leisure destination, the Bullring Estate is the perfect determination to motorboat our 2nd UK site, and we are anxious to bring our mind-expanding adventures to this astonishing market.”

Sandbox VR volition articulation a starring line-up of leisure operators wrong Bullring & Grand Central, including Treetop Adventure Golf and 2 concepts acceptable to unfastened aboriginal this summer: boutique bowling brand Lane7, and the world’s archetypal interactive shot acquisition TOCA Social. Combined with the prime of Grand Central edifice and eating line-up, Hammerson is besides creating a caller office, societal and amusement territory in the bosom of Birmingham, arsenic portion of a masterplan to redevelop the erstwhile John Lewis section store.