Hammerson has relet part of the former Debenhams department store at Birmingham’s Bullring to Toca Social.
The interactive football bar will take the 40,000 sq ft top floor as its second venue in the UK, after opening at London’s O2 in the summer.
Toca describes itself as the world’s first interactive football and dining experience. Visitors can eat and drink as well as kicking a ball against a digital wall in various games.
The leisure switch is part of the plan put forward by Rita-Rose Gagné, who joined Hammerson as chief executive a year ago. Recently she said recently that its malls might end up only half-filled with premium retail, with the rest put to other uses.
Marks & Spencer is also moving into the Bullring, taking 67,000 sq ft on the bottom two floors.
Hammerson has so far repurposed four of the five Debenhams stores in its estate. The store in Highcross, Leicester, is being turned into flats and Next has taken the space at the Oracle in Reading and Whitgift in Croydon.
