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The entertainment industry today is in a state of expansion. Indeed, shopping centers have ceased being simply stores, as, for many people, these areas have become a form of rest and relaxation. Boutiques, cinemas, bowling alleys, aqua parks and cafes and restaurants are all now located within the same structure, and there is even entertainment for the younger generation as part of this conglomeration of functional zones. However, the question still remains whether children’s entertainment centers can develop and flourish independently from retail facilities.

Children’s centers today are undergoing a change in development as part of shopping complexes. Everything began with simple children’s play areas, where parents could allow their children to play while they shopped. Then, as the formats of the shopping centers developed, the entertainment zones began to expand, ushering in the construction of large shopping and entertainment complexes with fully functional attractions and rides, ice-skating rinks, rollerdromes and even skateboarding parks.
Moreover, there is a recent trend to include children’s play zones within the lineups of larger entertainment complexes for the whole family, and the zones are quite large in these projects, being 1,500-2,000 sqm. Special operators have even emerged, offering corresponding services, such as Play Day, Crazy Park, Star Galaxy, Game Zone and others. A family-entertainment center concept is more efficient because of its multi-functionalism and appeal to various age groups.
Specialists consider the combination of children’s play centers and retail premises to be the most successful in terms of financial arrangement; however, this does not mean that this idea could not succeed without a retail foundation. According to Mikhail Uzikov, a specialist at Forrec, children’s play centers could operate in children’s popular science centers, large children’s hospitals as well as museums, where games and interaction are the crux of the cognitive process: “However, in terms of finances, integrating family entertainment centers specifically within shopping malls is the most attractive,” says Uzikov.
“People will more readily go to entertainment centers with children right after or during shopping than they would make special plans to come visit us,” says Victoria Uzhischenko, marketing communications director at Planeta Razvlechenii, a chain of family entertainments from Igromax. “A shopper can get everything in one place in a shopping center – purchases and family entertainment. This is the simplest means for relaxing, as there is no need for special planning.”
In addition to shopping centers, children’s entertainment areas can be located in aqua parks, planetariums and sea aquariums, zoos as well as multi-screen cinemas. However, according to Elena Suroegina, general director at Clover Entertainment, part of the Clover Group Holding Company (which is developing the Ya IgraYu chain of conceptual family entertainment centers), these unusual solutions should be approached cautiously. Moreover, individual children’s play zones are appearing as stand-alone facilities in residential areas.
Alexander Bakhteev, director of the leasing department at Ross Group, says that children’s playrooms could also be included in class A office complexes, and even in class B ones in some instances. According to his information, these zones will be included in one of the Moscow City buildings.
For a complex, the inclusion of a children’s entertainment zone is an additional competitive advantage, which today has become practically indispensable, with the instances being very few when one would not be included in a shopping center. Moreover, a family entertainment center has become a full-fledged anchor tenant in its own right, attracting additional visitors.
“Of course, children’s entertainment in shopping centers increases the number of shoppers,” says Nikolai Volchkov, general director of Torgovy Kvartal management company. Depending on the overall concept, an entertainment center could increase foot traffic in a shopping center from 10%-40%. Moreover, children’s entertainment centers increase the average time spent by visitors to a shopping center, which is the ultimate goal of all shopping center owners.”
The size of family and children’s entertainment centers has reached 1,500-2,000 sqm. For example, the XL shopping and entertainment center has s 2,000-sqm recreational zone, and there are also large children’s play areas in Atrium and Golden Babylon (Otradnoe), which are characterized as being located separately from the other entertainment areas. Global City shopping and entertainment center has an entertainment complex. In the regional city of Nizhny Novgorod, the 1,800-sqm Crazy Park is part of the Shokolad shopping and entertainment center.
“Developers should keep in mind, too, that entertainment zones have the lowest lease rates, at the same level of hypermarkets, by five- to ten-fold lower than retail gallery pavilions. Therefore, a happy medium should be found between the size of an entertainment section and a shopping center’s profit margins,” believes Antonina Lairova, senior analyst at Prime City Properties.

Infrastructure
The infrastructure of children’s entertainment zones varies and depends on many factors, including the shopping center’s concept. Indeed, a children’s play area could be an entertainment complex or it could be a small area or next to arcade games.
“Children’s entertainment zones are the most popular, with various attractions, arcade games, play tunnels, soft rooms and other forms of entertainment,” says Suroegina. “Developers are showing increasing interest in entertainment for kids and are happily collaborating with the entertainment market leaders.”
Organizing enough large play zones with areas based on the children’s age has been the trend over the past few years, given that teenagers and pre-teens and tots have various needs in entertainment.
“There are rooms with babysitters, various attractions for little kids and for teens, children’s and family cafes, etc. Built in this style, children’s play zones have already taken on the role of separate centers of attraction,” explains Olga Yasko, director of the analytical department at Colliers International.
According to Uzikov, areas with lots of movement and action for children and parent alike draw the most people, and there are zones similar to kindergarten, with qualified childcare givers, and children can have a good time while their parents are shopping.
“In addition to the active games, there are quiet activities, for example, drawing or watching cartoons,” says Lairova. “In terms of cost, there are some cases when there is no fee, while in other instances, the meter starts after the firs hour. Typically, parents do not have to pay for their children’s using the playground areas built as part of the retail area, such as slides, stairs, swings, tunnels, jumping devices, pools with multi-colored balls, etc.”
Professionally hired and trained childcare specialists and nannies must work in serious and well-planned children’s entertainment centers.
“Children require development and educational games, and a child left for some time in a center should not be bored or simply watch TV,” believes Suroegina. “In fact, a kid should spend this time learning something new and important or interesting, and there are many choices, such as Lego-style construction toys, clay-molding kits, drawing with colored pencils and painting.”
In terms of teenagers, their favorite pastimes are interactive games, arcade games, rollerblading, skateboarding and other such activities.
“Western experience shows us that entertainment zones for children and teenagers are usually located separately from one another to avoid younger children crossing paths with large bodies,” says Uzikov. “The same trend is owing to the subconscious desire of teenagers to be independent and distance themselves from younger children.”
Overall, family entertainment centers are traditionally divided into three or four functional zones: a family zone, a children’s zone, one for teenager and pre-teens, and, often, one for very small toddlers and those kids who have not begun to walk yet.
In terms of a variety of attractions, operators today have access to whatever is available on the market.
“We have installed a trampoline and trapeze device indoors rather than outdoors, but these ideas are not used very often,” says Uzhischenko. “Therefore, we are constantly searching for new opportunities, as, in addition to the regular entertainment equipment, we offer our guests ideas, or, to put it better, a Game.”

Promotions and Attractions
Recently, holding children’s celebrations and events, for example, birthday parties in shopping complexes, has become very popular. Indeed, today this service is in heavy demand.
According to Suroegina, the McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants’ appearance on the Russian market sparked the popularity of holding parties in cafes. “Parties are professionally organized in children’s centers, with a number of various clowns available for performing and several different menus offered. Considering the discounts and holding the party on premises with all of the center’s attractions, children have a great time playing with their friends in a public area with a specially decorated hall.”
The reasons for conducting children’s costume parties and events in centers could be many. “They could be in honor of calendar celebrations,” says Suroegina.
Several free holiday promotions held in Igromax centers have already become a tradition. “These are children’s events, championships, competitions and parties which we try to accompany with an exiting theme and original content,” explains Uzhischenko. “Some of these promotions are held in conjunction with partners, such as producers, printing houses and the mass media. We also hold special events for increasing sales and conduct drawings and lotteries for valuable prizes as well as long-running competitions.”
Another seasonal promotion offered particularly by Igromax is a summer club, where parents can drop off their kids for some time or even the whole day. The children are kept entertained to enjoy the entire time spent in the complex.

Are there Growing Pains?

The locations of children’s play zones in Russian projects are typically inconvenient, such as in areas of low shopper traffic, on the very top floors or, if a complex is only one-story, the entertainment area is generally in a space located the farthest from where the main flow of shoppers is. Experts explain this as resulting from several factors, one of which is the special, anchor-tenant status of children’s entertainment centers.
“If children’s entertainment is the anchor tenant in a complex, from 1,000 sqm, then location is not important, given that entertainment zones attract their own flow of visitors,” explains Volchkov.
According to experts, the location of children’s centers is more important for concepts in the overall entertainment area. Most often, they seem to be located on the same floor as cinemas and food courts, which is how the centers in Igromax are situated. Not only are they near cinemas and food courts, but also next to operators who have the same target group of clients.
In Ramstore City, the rest area is separate: on the third floor, there is the IMAX 3-D cinema, but the Star Galaxy children’s entertainment area is located on the ground floor. This is the same situation in Atrium and XL, where the food court and cinema (rest areas) and the children’s entertainment area are located on different floors.
Another reason why children’s play centers are located in special areas is because of financial factors. Experts believe that the business’ low profit margins prevent entertainment operators from competing for the best premises in a shopping center which are typically occupied by clothing stores and operators selling telecommunications. Considering anchor-tenant status, there are serious lease rate discounts for children’s entertainment centers. According to various specialists’ evaluations, depending on the quality of a shopping center and the amount of space, lease rates are $100-$250/sqm per year.
According to Polina Zhilkina, deputy director of the strategic consulting and valuation department at Jones Lang LaSalle, children’s centers pay on average $80-$150/sqm, excluding tax and operating expenses. This is one of the lowest rates vis-a-vis other operators, and, in some instances, is even lower than cinemas pay.
Consequently, a sensible question arises: Can children’s entertainment centers even operate efficiently when located in the farthest corners of complex’s top floors? Most experts believe that children’s play zones, just like family recreation centers in general, are anchor tenants, and they have become independent players generating their own flows of visitors; therefore, as afore-stated, location does not play a major role.
However, Uzikov has somewhat of a different take on the situation: “When designing projects in Russia, we have noticed that family entertainment centers are often banished by developers to the far flung corners of centers, thus neutralizing said centers’ roles in the complexes. I can confidently say that based on these locations, an unenviable fate awaits such centers. Being undeniably strong anchor tenants, family entertainment centers could show their mettle well if they were integrated in the entire complex, not driven into the corner on the last floor. Moreover, this practically excludes an entertainment zone being able to operate during nighttime hours, when it could be repositioned as a complex geared toward teenagers. Problems arise on the upper floors in terms of choosing the necessary entertainment equipment. Specifically, our company often uses in its project roller coasters and other high-adrenaline attractions which could not be installed on the top floors, given the height of the ceilings and other parameters of the premises do not allow for this.”

Stand-Alone Centers
So, could children’s entertainment centers exist separately from retail centers and other facilities?
“Most likely, family centers, rather than simply children’s centers, could; however, such a facility would have to be rather large and with a good selection of tenants, so a family could spend at least three hours. In the U.S., there are separate entertainment centers (both family and children’s), but they are located within a huge retail park. In this case, one common parking lot divides a shopping mall, separate stores, banks, restaurants, sport centers and cinemas from each other,” says Uzhischenko.
According to Suroegina, this could happen, if the following conditions are adhered to: the center must be conveniently located in the central part of the city, with organized parking and be located nearby municipal transports stops. Moreover, cafes with children’s fare and a room for celebrating birthday parties must be included as part of the entertainment center.
“Western colleagues confirm that developing such facilities is possible and financially efficient,” says Bakhteev. “However, there have not been any similar projects in Russia to date.”
“According to Zhilkina, large entertainment centers in Europe have become common. And these are not small entertainment areas, but, rather, entire recreational parks with roller coasters.
There are even examples of successfully functioning separate entertainment complexes in Russia, such as Fantasy Park in Marino, where children’s entertainment is located on several floors. According to experts, Fantasy Park is very popular, with birthdays being celebrated on the premises, and even a waiting list has formed for the honor of celebrating an event here.
According to Zhilkina, the relatively young market complicates developing large-scale projects in the entertainment industry which has only a couple professional operators. “Chain operators have still not matured to constructing stand-alone facilities which require major investment. It is much simpler to lease 1,500 sqm in a shopping center and not make a large capital investment at the initial stage. However, considering the development of the market for entertainment services, one can confidently forecast such projects becoming fully real.”