May 28, 2025

Interactive Gaming Experience Activate Chooses The Crossroads Of Taylorsville For Utah Market Entry

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BALTIMORE, MD (May 28, 2025) – Activate, an active gaming facility featuring a unique blend of physical activity and gaming experience, has selected The Crossroads of Taylorsville for the site of its inaugural location in Utah. Activate, which currently operates more than 45 sites in the United States, Canada, UK, and Dubai, signed a lease with Continental Realty Corporation (CRC) for 17,292 square feet of space at the approximately 630,000 square foot super-regional shopping center. CRC acquired the shopping center, positioned 12 miles south of Salt Lake City in Taylorsville, located at 5400 S Redwood Road, and anchored by national retailers including Target, T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, Ross Dress for Less, EOS Fitness, Regal Cinema, and PetSmart, late last year. Approximately 12-20 employees are expected to work at the location when its opens later this year. Cherene Keenan, Leasing Manager for Continental Realty Corporation and Joe Mills and Tanner Olsen of Legend Partners were involved in this transaction.

Activate consists of 15 game rooms in which players are tasked to conquer different games and multiple levels from one being easy and 10 being extreme. The games can last a total of one to three minutes, but the experience lasts 75 minutes. The high-energy and immersive challenges incorporate cutting-edge technology that are designed to push people to their mental and physical limits. The game rooms include “Mega Grid” which is a digital form of floor is lava; “Control,” where players are tasked to run, jump, and solve fun puzzles to win the challenge; an obstacle course of lasers called “Lasers” and “Hide,” which involves a futuristic version of hide and seek.

According to Tanya Williams, Activate’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Adam Schmidt developed the concept while living in the Winnipeg, Canada area and working as a pilot for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. “He realized that the number of entertainment options in the area were few and, after visiting an escape room concept in Ontario, decided to open his own escape room. The company became Western Canada’s most successful escape room. But Schmidt wanted to create something futuristic, that people ages six and up could experience. One that was replayable and every time you come, the experience would be even better. He invented his own interactive gaming experience – Activate,” she said.

“The first Activate opened in 2019 and spread quickly through North America. We are planning to open nearly 20 new sites this year and recently revealed our intentions to expand into Belgium, Dubai, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Activate has been enormously successful and immediately embraced at every site, which has provided us with tremendous confidence to grow our worldwide footprint,” she added.

Delivered in 1982 and located along the Belt Route/Interstate 215 corridor on a more than 75-acre site, The Crossroads of Taylorsville is anchored by Target and features a mix of more than 60 restaurants and retailers representing the apparel, health and fitness, pet, financial and professional services, and food categories, including a diverse selection of sit-down, fast-casual and quick serve restaurants.

The property includes 10 buildings and 7 separate outparcels or multi-tenanted strip buildings, and is surrounded by a free surface parking lot which can accommodate nearly 3,900 vehicles. The site also features numerous access and egress points and three signalized intersections on S. Redwood Road, including a direct entrance off the I-215 exit ramp and 4,000 feet of frontage along Interstate 215 and Redwood Road.

Nearly 420,000 people, including more than 53,000 households with an average household income of more than $96,000, reside within a five-mile radius of The Crossroads of Taylorsville, and an additional 91,000 people work within five miles of the regional shopping center. The center draws consumers from an expanded 15-mile trade area capturing nearly 270,000 households which spend approximately $30,000 annually at retail stores throughout Salt Lake City.

Financial Times recently named Activate “America’s fastest growing leisure and entertainment company,” according to Williams, who explained the gaming experience is suitable for people between age six to 70. When choosing real estate, she said “the presence of major anchor tenants are key because Activate gravitates to shopping center venues featuring strong traffic counts. It is also essential to have plentiful parking and be near major residential areas, making it convenient for players to get to.”

This is Activate’s second lease with Continental Realty Corporation, with the first executed last summer at Fox River Commons in Naperville, Illinois.

“The Crossroads of Taylorsville features strong roadside visibility and consumer demographics and its position in Utah is the perfect site to establish a foothold into the market, and we are actively scouting additional locations throughout the region,” Williams said. “We are extremely confident that residents stretching across a wide range of demographics will immediately embrace our immersive games and become return players.”

“A thrilling fusion of interactive video games and real-world physical challenges, Activate provides a one-of-a-kind immersive customer experience and its presence within The Shops at Taylorsville adds another destination-style tenant to our tenant mix,” stated Kristina O’Keefe, Vice President of CRC’s Commercial Division. “This represents our first new lease since acquiring the center last year and is indicative of the unique and compelling tenant concepts which we intend to attract to the center to address the needs of the surrounding community.”

Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland and founded in 1960, Continental Realty Corporation is a full-service commercial real estate and investment company focused on acquiring and operating retail and multifamily properties. The privately held firm owns and manages a diversified portfolio of retail centers consisting of approximately eight million square feet of commercial space and more than 10,000 apartment homes across 13 states, with a portfolio value exceeding $4 billion. For additional information, visit www.crcrealty.com.