VR entertainment brand Sandbox comes to Dublin

Sandbox VR, a virtual reality experience brand whose early investors include Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake, is opening its first Irish base in Dublin city centre.

Kells Icav, the developers of a seven-storey retail and office block currently under construction on the corner of Dawson Street and Nassau Street in the capital, have been given the green light to change the use of two retail units at ground floor and lower ground floor level to leisure and recreational use to accommodate the entertainment venue.

Permission was granted after the council’s planner concluded that the proposed VR facility’s use of the space at lower ground floor level would not result in the removal of prime retail space at street level and was thus unlikely to have a detrimental impact on vibrancy at the location. However, the city council has insisted that the plan omits two internal shopfront window display TV monitors associated with the use of the VR facility fronting on to Nassau Street in the interests of visual amenity.

Sandbox, which operates a franchise model, operates in 40 cities worldwide, and its planned Irish outlet will have capacity for 120 customers. It will be the company’s fourth European opening.

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A planning report submitted in support of the change of use by consultants Declan Brassil & Co said the Sandbox VR system “provides an immersive and full-body virtual reality experience using advanced wireless haptic hardware and real-time motion tracking/capture technology, coupled with software and operating systems”.

He said Sandbox was a global leader in location-based virtual reality entertainment, adding that the proposed venue was “unique in Ireland and will enhance the mix of uses in the completed building and the diversity and attractiveness of the leisure and recreation offering in the wider city centre during day and night”.

The Sandbox experience will also include two bars at its Dublin outlet, with the second incorporating a robotic bartender Toni.