King Pins bowls into Manchester Arndale

Manchester Arndale has expanded its entertainment offering after agreeing a 20-year lease with local bowling brand King Pins to take the former 28,890 sq ft Sports Direct unit. This will be King Pins second location in Greater Manchester and will mark its first site in the city centre.

As well as its unique bowling experience, King Pins also offers a variety of other activities for all the family including, curling, shuffleboard, batting cages, pool, ping pong, and karaoke. King Pins has also partnered with some of the North West’s favourite restaurants and street food brands to bring a tasty line up to its food kiosks. Visitors can also enjoy cocktails, housemade slushies, craft beers and sweet treats, with live sport also on offer in its bar area.

Operated by Roxy Leisure, King Pins will be the company’s second letting at Manchester Arndale, following the opening of its sister brand Roxy Ball Room a few years ago. The ball games playground for adults, which includes six beer pong battle stations, Olympic standard ping pong tables, and two full-size shuffleboard tables has proved extremely popular with visitors to Manchester Arndale.

Steve Gray, Head of European Retail Asset Management at Global Mutual, said: “Leisure and entertainment operators are increasingly becoming key features of UK shopping destinations and are helping to draw in more visitors from a broader catchment group seeking social activities. It is therefore great to work with Roxy Leisure again on a second family-orientated leisure offer following the success of Roxy Ball Room. King Pins is a growing and already popular local brand, and we expect their offer to appeal to visitors once they are open.

The arrival of King Pins follows our strategy of creating a diverse tenant mix at Manchester Arndale where we look to combine leading international and local brands across the retail, leisure, and F&B space to ensure we provide the best experience and choice for our customers. This has resulted in consistently high footfall across the centre, and near full occupancy of the available leasing space, reinforcing Manchester Arndale’s position as one of the premier attractions in the north west.”

James Travis, Brand Manager for King Pins, added: “We couldn’t be happier to be opening our second site at Manchester Arndale. Taking our state-of-the-art bowling concept to its first city centre location is hugely exciting, and where better to do it? Manchester Arndale is one of the UK’s leading shopping destinations, and already has an impressive entertainment offering alongside some of the best retailers on the high street.

With lanes, games, food, drinks and more; King Pins offers a place for the whole family to have some king-sized fun, as well as the perfect nighttime venue for friends to get together and try something a little different. We can’t wait to get going, and to bring the Crown Jewels of bowling to Manchester City Centre.”

M&G Real Estate and Global Mutual act as joint asset managers of Manchester Arndale while Metis Real Estate and Time Retail Partners are the centre’s retained letting agents.