The Immersive Entertainment Venue Lighting Up Toronto’s Distillery District

If you’ve spent any time shopping in person lately, you’ve likely noticed that more and more retail landlords are turning to experiential and entertainment concepts to attract consumer footfall and generate excitement around their properties.

A recent JLL report on retail entertainment concepts predicted over 9 million square feet (836,127 square meters) of new entertainment openings in the U.S. and Canada over the next two years. The report also identified 503 entertainment concepts with multiple planned or existing locations, many of which have national and international expansion plans.

One such venture is Illuminarium, an Atlanta-based experiential entertainment company specializing in immersive, multi-sensory and interactive art shows that transport customers to faraway locales and fantasy environments, all within the company’s own branded venues.

Illuminarium CEO (and former publisher of Esquire) Alan Greenberg told LoopNet that the company’s strategy is to establish long-term entertainment venues in mega tourism destinations around the world. Illuminarium launched in Atlanta in 2021 before opening its flagship outpost in Las Vegas’s Area 15 entertainment district a year later.

In August of this year, the company launched its first international joint venture in Toronto’s Distillery Historic District, a 13-acre (5.3 hectare) retail, restaurant and arts destination set in the former Gooderham & Worts Distillery, the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America.

“We're looking for vibrant cities and interesting locations within those cities,” Greenberg said. “It's a big world out there, and there are many hundreds of potential locations. But what we're looking for is locations that have significant footfall and great trajectory.”

Illuminarium venues feature interactive, projection-mapped environments that use motion tracking, haptics, spatial audio and scent systems to create fully immersive cinematic experiences. Venues run several shows a day and some also operate on-site restaurants. The company also produces an “After Dark” nightlife series featuring bar service, and venues are available to rent for private events.

Illuminarium shows currently running include the youth-oriented “Waking Wonderland,” the African safari-themed “Wild,” and “Space: A Journey to the Moon and Beyond,” featuring images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Nightlife events include a Nicki Minaj-themed After Dark show and “Football at Illuminarium” on Monday nights. "Amplified", an upcoming co-production with Rolling Stone magazine, will present a tour of the history of rock’n’roll.

To bring Illuminarium north of the border, Greenberg partnered with Toronto-based immersive entertainment experts Secret Location, who had developed and produced Illuminarium's “Waking Wonderland” show.

Founded by CEO Ryan Andal nearly 15 years ago, Secret Location has a long track record of producing innovative experiential content, notably winning the first Emmy and Peabody Awards for virtual reality (VR). Andal had just bought his company back from Hasbro as part of that company’s restructuring when he approached Illuminarium with plans for a joint venture in Toronto.

Andal told LoopNet that they considered several locations in the city for an Illuminarium venue, including inside Yorkdale Mall, the shopping center with the highest sales per unit in Canada. But ultimately, it was a 150-year-old, 13,500-square-foot (1,254 square meters) heritage building formerly known as the Fermenting Cellar that most suited Illuminarium.

In addition to offering a brandable standalone structure in a renowned retail destination, Andal said that what made the Distillery District a good fit for Illuminarium was the creative atmosphere fostered there by the district’s joint owners, Cityscape Holdings and Dundee Real Estate Asset Management (DREAM). Ever since the District’s early beginnings in 2003, the owners have curated a varied roster of local tenants, including boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, jewelry stores and cafés, as well as the Mill Street Brewery and the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

“They're very careful about what they put in the District [and] very cognizant of wanting to have all of the tenants collaborate with one another in different ways,” Andal said. “And they're nimble when it comes to dealing with what is essentially a giant heritage property, which can be challenging. But they make it easy.”

The Distillery District also hosts an annual Winter Village during the six weeks prior to New Year’s Day. In 2019, the event reportedly recorded more than 700,00 visitors over that six-week period. And with several residential developments either completed or in the works nearby, Greenberg and Andal both said that footfall in the area is likely to increase in the coming years.

“The Distillery District is on a great trajectory,” Greenberg said. “It has a spirit about it. Everyone goes there to do something and to have a good time, and that's the kind of brand relevance that we're looking for.”

Now that Illuminarium’s Toronto venue has officially launched, Greenberg said his sights are set on the future, with the next planned opening in Macau, China at the Wynn Palace hotel, followed by Chicago’s Navy Pier and Miami’s Wynwood Arts District, where Greenberg said Illuminarium recently signed a 20-year lease.

“We’re really in the permanent business, not the pop-up business,” Greenberg said. “We don't do short-term leases. Our strategy is really [leases] in excess of 10 years. We like to make a long-term commitment to a location, build our business and be a part of the community for a long time.”

Since Illuminarium’s corporate headquarters is in Atlanta, Greenberg said that it made sense to open the first venue there. They settled on the adaptive reuse of a former warehouse in the city’s Beltline district, which they heavily renovated and built out with the help of the Rockwell Group, an interdisciplinary architecture and design firm founded by architect and Tony-award winning scenic designer David Rockwell.

“We were brought a below-market opportunity by a developer who was also one of our investors [and] we were able to negotiate a very attractive deal with significant free rent in a location that we thought would be a long-term success,” Greenberg said of Illuminarium’s Atlanta location.

Next on Illuminarium’s expansion path was what would become its flagship venue in Las Vegas. As in Atlanta, Greenberg said the property was brought to them by an investor that was also a developer. In this case, New York-based real estate firm Fisher Brothers was in the process of developing Area 15, a 50-acre immersive entertainment district in Las Vegas that also hosts “Omega Mart,” the second immersive entertainment production by Sante Fe-based artist collective Meow Wolf.

“Area 15 fit our needs because it's a destination that's built to be all about experiential entertainment,” Greenberg said. He added that the development’s off-the-Strip location made sense from a financial perspective. “Instead of spending a couple hundred dollars a square foot, we're spending a fraction of that in an area that's hot and growing,” he said.

As for other global venues, Greenberg said that he’s still on the hunt for locations. “Each one of these is a bespoke decision,” he said. “We’re opportunistic, and these deals tend to come to us, to be honest with you.”