There have been rumours that Cineplex has been looking at bringing its The Rec Room concept to Winnipeg across from Scotiabank Theatre Polo Park. This fall the first Rec Room opened up in Edmonton with promises from the the company to establish more of them across Canada in 2017.
So what is The Rec Room? It’s a state of the art playground with games and entertainment. They have bowling, ping pong, carnival games, simulators, pool, axe throwing and video games.
There also seems to be a performance area for dance, comedy and musical acts. Lots of big screens everywhere make the entertainment and restaurant area a ready made sports bar.
The area on Maroons Road beside Scotiabank Theatre in the empty parking lot of Polo Park Target seems to be where the focus is on now by the company. The feeling is that Cineplex would love to have the theatres and their game area combined together by a mere street crossing.
Each Rec Room costs millions to build and it is likely there is still some refining to be done on the Edmonton concept but Cineplex has successfully created value in the movie industry with bars, restaurants and games and appears poised to spread the concept to an adjacent property.
No announcement has been made on the now Polo Park owned land where Target stands but it would seem that nothing is happening too soon. A Rec Room might be the trigger for some further development.
This has been an editorial by John Dobbin.
To read more from John, visit his blog Observations, Reservations, Conversations
