Our search for an ideal Escape room venue took us in many different directions. There was a wide span of areas and considered sites between Taunton and Paignton to consider different types of property. We viewed some properties in Newton Abbot and Torquay before arriving back in Exeter. We needed to have somewhere where a landlord would be happy for us to decorate extensively so focused our efforts on older offices in need of modernisation or industrial units.
Industrial units
Industrial or out of town units had the advantage of being larger typically with lots of room available to expand. We figured that with escape rooms being a planned destination for a visit rather than an off-the-cuff walk in, what we would lose in on-street visibility could be shifted towards marketing to promote instead. Whilst these sites offered good open spaces that we could use very flexibly the investment to make the spaces habitable would have been far greater. This would have pushed our budget to the limit. What we found with a lot of these sites is that they were not always practical for parking and landlords were keen to maintain industrial use.
Office units
On the other side, offices were plentiful post-pandemic. Most were city centre focused with varying different sizes but not all were very accessible and many adjoined businesses that would not be happy with us as neighbours. Offices were more capable of moving in quickly but represented a challenge to work around existing fixtures. We had a few options around the Fore Street area of Exeter but wanted to offer a bit of space between ourselves and the current escape room venues already in Exeter.
Our perfect escape room venue
Just when we were starting to give up we stumbled upon our current property. The building was the former labour social club. It had been empty for a while with the previous occupiers having left just before covid. An unusual shape with good space and a bit of parking too. The location was a short walk from the city centre and the public transport that is provided. Prodigy escapes finally had a venue.
Our escape room venue wouldn’t have been possible without the great service from Tom at Stratton Creber Commercial who we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.
Read more about our journey of starting Prodigy escapes here.