Sporting the latest in gaming tech and a striking new cocktail bar, Birmingham's newest 'competitive socialising' venue has launched this week following months of anticipation.
F1 Arcade is the latest hospitality tenant to join the £1.2 billion Paradise estate and is offering customers the chance to try state-of-the-art Formula 1 simulators or even watch live racing at its F1 parties.
First announced last year, the 11,000 sq ft space on the ground floor of Two Chamberlain Square has undergone a £6 million fit out which has created 137 full- and part-time jobs.
It features 53 separate F1 racing simulators, a huge and very swish-looking cocktail bar called 'Octane', a game to test your reactions and plenty of dining space to enjoy food and drink. There is even an upside down F1 car attached to the ceiling.
The computer racing machines, which cost around £30,000 each, offer an immersive F1 racing experience and have motion and audio-visual effects, with five skill settings to suit all abilities.
The venue will open at 9am on weekends to target the family market alongside appealing to large parties and the buoyant Colmore Row and Paradise business community on its doorstep.
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This is only F1 Arcade's second bar, joining its original venue next door to St Paul's Cathedral in London which opened a year ago.
Speaking to BusinessLive this week ahead of the launch, co-founder and chief operating officer Diane Jervis said: "When we set out to develop this concept, we were very clear that we wanted to surpass every other competitive socialising venue that exists.
"We have had a bit of success in the past in this field which is why Formula 1 approached us about this. It was just before covid hit so during lockdown we actually had some free space and time to look at it.
"It was two years in development, working on funding and licensing with F1 which has been an incredibly supportive partner and has since taken an equity stake in the business.
"Our London venue has been so well received, the audience is so broad and we frame it as the best night out in London. Hopefully, it will be the same in Birmingham if we can establish ourselves in that way."
The hospitality industry has seen a rise in recent years in so-called competitive socialising as venues have re-embraced pub games amid fears in the industry that they were dying out.
In 2019, Birmingham welcomed a new Flight Club darts bar in Temple Street while Roxy Ball Room offers a multitude of games such as American pool and shuffleboard at venues in Digbeth and Victoria Square.
Even shopping centres are getting in on the action with Birmingham's Bullring hosting Treetop Adventure Golf and a forthcoming interactive football venue called Toca Social, opening soon in the former Debenhams unit.
F1 Arcade's co-founder and chief executive is Adam Breeden, the brains behind the aforementioned Flight Club, All Star Lanes bowling alleys, table tennis hall Bounce, bingo venue Hijingo and mini golf bar Puttshack, the majority of which are in London.
The ethos underpinning these types of venues is one of being a traditional bar with added activities rather than being seen solely as a venue to play games like a bowling alley or amusement arcade.
In June, F1 Arcade announced it had secured a £30 million funding round to support the company's expansion into the US, with six new venues currently in the design stages and launches in Boston and Washington DC tabled for next summer.
Among the backers were F1 drivers Lando Norris and Logan Sargeant and the company is now targeting 30 new venues by the end of 2027.
Ms Jervis said F1 Arcade had enjoyed great success in London during its first year of trading and she was now confident of replicating this within Birmingham.
"We invest a lot of design time and resources into this, you cannot throw one of these up in six weeks so it's quite an intensive process we go through," she told BusinessLive.
"Our neighbours are doing really well here (at Paradise) and we want to work with them to make sure we are elevating this side of town. We have always found Birmingham a really natural place following London to look at.
"We kept the research pretty tight in terms of the UK and Birmingham was always number one for where we wanted to go based on the amount of growth. There is an upward trajectory, there are a lot of big businesses coming here.
"Over the last five years, we have been keeping an eye on the city as we have other businesses looking at expansion as well. Birmingham is a great market. This was an absolute no brainer for us."
