Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield signs an agreement with virtual reality The Void

Let's face it. People do not go to the local mall just to wander with friends, buy a pretzel and maybe see a movie, as before.

Shopping center owners are realizing that they must create a new wave of entertainment venues to attract people. So, now escape to escape rooms, places where you can pay to have a look at the wall and virtual reality experiences that will give you the impression of being in the city. to be on your skin. the entire film "Star Wars" is appearing in the country's shopping centers.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which owns 32 properties in the United States, including Westfield World Trade Center in New York and Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, announced an agreement with director The Void on Thursday. of virtual reality based in Utah. The two plan to work together to create more than 25 virtual reality spaces at URW's shopping centers in the United States and Europe.

Void pop-ups should first open at four URW locations in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego next month. The deployment of permanent sites will continue in the United States and will continue in Paris, London and Stockholm in the coming months. All sites should be completed by 2022. URW is Europe's largest commercial owner.

This agreement represents another way for American shopping centers to adapt, while a record wave of store closures has forced the establishment of a traditional shopping center.

"Entertainment is a very important part of destination shopping centers," said Jean-Marie Tritant, president of URW in the United States.

About five years ago, more than 50 percent of the contracts signed by URW were for fashion stores, he said. Today, it is reduced to about 35%. Entertainment options are installed instead.

Overall, the square footage of clothing in US shopping centers has declined by about 15% since 2010, according to a CoStar Group badysis. Entertainment uses, however, have risen by about 13% since then. And so-called non-traditional uses, defined by CoStar as including collaborative workspaces, schools, private offices and event spaces, now occupy nearly 20% more square feet in shopping centers.

Source: CoStar Group

"People hear about virtual reality and think it's a gadget, it's a fad, it's not for me," said Curtis Hickman, co-founder and chief creative officer at The Void . "But everyone can do it.We make things easier for everyone.It is the future of entertainment."

The Void offers an experience in which customers pay $ 35 to feel physically in a movie, live. For example, with "Star Wars", for example, you wear goggles and a protective vest and you go to a room where a Darth Vader battle scene takes place. The temperature of the room increases when lava surrounds you. The wind blows when you have to jump on a bridge. You take a blaster to fight Darth until the end.

The Void currently has 11 operational sites around the world, including Malaysia and Dubai, Hickman said. It plans to open three more, apart from the agreement with URW, later this year: at the Triple Five Group's Mall of America in Minnesota, Tysons Corner Center in Macerich, Virginia and at The Battery Atlanta in Georgia.

"We invite people to go to the mall … to buy jeans, and then they find themselves in the middle of 'Star Wars'," Hickman said. "But a lot of people go to The Void as a destination, so you spend your weekend or your evening with friends."

Shopping center owners and retailers could benefit from the increased traffic that The Void is able to bring, especially if people stay to shop and eat.

URW expects to attract visitors for the first time with The Void sites, which has already been revealed during a visit to Westfield London about 18 months ago, according to Tritant. In the space of about two months, over 70% of the people who came to The Void pop up at Westfield London had never been to this mall before, did it? declared.

"People want to be entertained," said Greg Maloney, CEO of the retail division of real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, adding that mall leasing activities are now focused around "experiences and entertainment".

Later this summer, "Star Wars: The Secrets of the Empire" and "Ralph Breaks VR" will be the first immersive experiences to debut at The Void sites at Westfield World Trade Center in New York at Westfield San Francisco Center and Westfield Santa Anita in Los Angeles and Westfield UTC in San Diego, announced the companies.

The Void has made entertainment deals with studios, including Disney and Sony, so they can use their content to create simulations. For "Star Wars", it works with Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm's Immersive Entertainment division, ILMxLAB.

The Void is also reported to have received a $ 20 million investment from James Murdoch, heir to media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and is now on the board of directors of the virtual reality company. Former Lululemon CEO Laurent Potdevin is also reported to have been a senior adviser to The Void for about a year. The Void declined to comment on Bloomberg's story.