12/11/2025
News
A new children’s indoor soft play experience is coming to Leicestershire’s Market Harborough as Rascal Ranch saddles up to open its second centre as part of the Leicester-based operator’s expansion plans in the East Midlands.
In a deal in which Eddisons acted for the landlord, the Rascal Ranch business has secured a new lease on 9,775 sq ft of space in Unit M1 at Welland Business Park in the Leicestershire market town, in which to open its second Rascal Ranch-branded children’s soft play centre - the first being on Trevanth Road in Leicester.
Rascal Ranch was founded in 2021 by Kavita Patel, who is the Managing Director. She confirms the business was looking at a number of locations in the East Midlands in which to expand, including the Nottingham city area and in Derbyshire, before landing on Market Harborough.
The demographic profile, catchment area and competitor analysis of all the potential locations under consideration for the second Rascal Ranch met the business’s criteria. However, the unit at Welland Business Park in terms of size, accessibility and parking swung it for Market Harborough, according to Kavita Patel.
She said, “The unit at Welland Business Park gives us so much scope to expand the Rascal Ranch offer. As well as the open, public children’s soft playground area, we will have a number of bookable private party rooms and will be installing a fully equipped commercial kitchen, from where we can cater for the needs of other visitors to the park, as well as our own patrons.
“Local recruitment is well underway and we have already appointed a centre manager for the new Market Harborough space. We are looking to have a core headcount of 18 to 20 people by the time we are fully operational in the new year following our series of planned ‘soft play’ soft launches in the run-up to the end of year holiday season.”
Eddisons’ Amanda Lawrence - who led the letting instruction and negotiations with the Rascal Ranch operators on behalf of the landlord of the premises - sees the latest tenant as part of Welland Business Park’s increasingly diverse offering.
She said, “There is an eclectic mix of occupiers now at Welland Business Park, including industrial/warehousing, offices, retailers such as Age UK’s regional superstore that opened earlier this year, as well as established national retail and trade counter operators such as Howdens, Toolstation, BED Electrical and City Plumbing.
“Rascal Ranch gives another new reason to come to the Park that can only benefit existing operators and those in the pipeline whom we, as the appointed agent at Welland Business Park, are yet to announce.”
Picture kindly provided by Rascal Ranch
