What can you do with a commercial unit?

The short answer

Read a unit in this order: usable area, clear height, access. The concept comes afterwards, never before. A concept can be rewritten in a fortnight; a nine-year lease cannot.

What we have installed, by floor area

Nothing in the table below is an estimate. These are the eight venues we have designed, with their measured area and the activities actually operated inside.

Area	What operates inside	The project
140 sqm	One action game course, inside an existing complex	Pirate Experience Nice
250 sqm	One escape game, a single room	Mythologique Montpellier
300 sqm	Five activities around a bar	Otopia Angoulême
400 sqm	One action game, several teams at once	Pirate Experience Paris
600 sqm	Five activities around a games bar	Le Temple La Rochelle
800 sqm	Four activities, no kitchen	Otopia Le Havre
1,400 sqm	Six activities and a restaurant	Ankor Rennes

Activity count does not follow floor area

Read the two middle rows again. Angoulême fits five activities into 300 sqm. Le Havre operates four in 800. A unit two and a half times larger, one activity fewer.

That is the rule, not an anomaly. What decides the number of activities is not the area available but whether functions can overlap. In Angoulême the bar is simultaneously the reception, the waiting area, the place people spend money and the supervision point. In Le Havre each activity has its own space, and comfort of movement was chosen over a fifth attraction.

Both decisions are sound. They simply answer different operating questions.

The four questions that rule a unit out

Before discussing a concept, four answers are enough to know whether a unit is viable. All four can be found in one visit.

1. What is the clear height under the lowest point? Not the height the agent quotes: the height under the lowest beam, duct or sprinkler head.
2. How do the sets get in? They arrive assembled from the workshop. A 90 cm doorway means cutting them up, rebuilding and repainting on site.
3. What electrical supply is actually available? A leisure venue runs lighting, sound, air conditioning and effects at the same time.
4. What does the lease say about permitted use? A use clause that does not cover leisure is renegotiated before signing, never after.

Find your size band

• A 150 sqm unit
• A 300 sqm unit
• A 500 sqm unit
• An 800 sqm unit
• A 1,500 sqm unit

Around 1,000 sqm, read the two bands either side: the workable models are the 800 sqm ones with one more activity, or the 1,500 sqm ones without the restaurant. Above 1,500 sqm we are beyond what we have delivered, and the answer belongs in a conversation rather than on a page.

And before you sign

Floor area tells you what fits. It does not tell you whether the unit can be operated. That is the subject of another page: checking a unit before signing.