The future of Exeter's Guildhall will pave the way for other towns and cities in the region.
Bold new plans for phase II of the shopping centre revamp have been approved by planners and could potentially bring a fourth cinema to the city centre.
And a shift away from traditional retail to more leisure activities could well bring AI gaming centres and adult soft play for future users.
The move is in line with current thinking on how to save the High Street.
Watch how Exeter High Street is evolving
Matthew Mayes, the architect behind the scheme with international firm of architects BDP , said:
"It is – and must be – much more than a shopping centre.
"The first phase of redevelopment, completed back in 2016, was hugely successful and saw the balance begin to shift from predominantly retail to a much broader mix including high quality leisure and food offers with the advent of the Queen Street Dining quarter.
"So, the second phase is the next natural step. Despite the doom and gloom about the future of retail, it is important to remember that the forces of nature apply. High streets and the city centres they belong to are not dying, they are evolving."
Two influential retail reports were published last year that predicted the high streets of the future would need less shops.
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The Grimsey Report, written by expert Bill Grimsey said it was time to accept there was already “too much retail space” in the UK and city centres needed to be “repopulated and re-fashioned” with libraries and public spaces at the heart of each community.
It comes as shopping areas have been battered by a combination of online and out-of-town competition, rising costs and taxes and a fall in consumer spending and confidence.
Exeter has weathered the storm for the hardest hit brands, retaining its HMV, House of Fraser, Giraffe restaurant and Patisserie Valerie where other cities have lost out.
Mr Mayes said that as a regional capital, Exeter must be brave and lead by example.
He said: " Ensuring a really strong leisure and entertainment offer, from bars and restaurants to indoor golf, bowling or a cinema, will help sustain its future. Not only do these elements attract people in, boosting customers for the traditional retail element, they are also key to encouraging people to stay longer."
The design will include new roof terraces and feature windows, including two large glazed openings in the currently blank façade on Paul Street that will help to bring the outside in, to open the centre up onto the streets that surround it.
Real time bus, rail and Exeter airport flight information screens will also feature.
He said: "As we’ve seen with the success of Queen Street dining, food offer in shopping and leisure centres is now much more focussed on the whole experience, rather than the quick pit stop, grab a bite of the food court of old.
"This range of use is true not only of former ‘shopping centres’ like Guildhall, but urban centres more broadly, which are moving rapidly towards a far more balanced mix of use.
"These seismic shifts in our town and city centres are part of a genuine evolution. Truly successful and visionary urban planners and architects create spaces that evolve. Whilst we might be talking about a bowling alley and indoor golf centre today, we need to ensure the space can become an AI gaming centre or adult soft play centre tomorrow - whatever the latest in leisure demands."
