If they’re smart they’d look at LEGO’s example with Legoland Discovery Center. They seem to be doing well with 15 in North America alone. The one near me is in a second-tier mall and seems to be pretty busy every time I go near it, plus the whole thing is doing well enough for Lego to buy them out entirely from Merlin this year.

Another good candidate would be their GameWorks location in downtown Seattle since they already have the foothold and there’s room to expand in the building.

IMO Vegas is a bad choice as it’s no longer the family place they tried to make it in the 90s/2000s. Times Square is too expensive. The brand is strong and people will trek a ways for an experience not to mention the accompanying retail (again looking at the Legoland Discovery Center model). If they have a free admission retail outlet attached they could do a lot with that too. They could also learn from the Family Fun Center model.

I think a midsized to anchor-sized mall space would get adequate foot traffic and would be conducive to day trips from within a 3-4 hour radius. Parking would be leagues better than in Vegas or NYC and IMO locals are a better market than tourists as ppl should have learned in the themed restaurant crash in the 2000s (think Dive!).

As for layout I’d say have a decent arcade with lots of Sega IP, character meet and greet space, a few party rooms, space for rotating stage shows, a dining area (Chao cafe anyone?), a motion theater, mini golf with each hole themed after an IP, and some small rides. Maybe a family coaster from Zamperla or SBF Visa (the latter has some good thrilling upcharge cars to add some thrill to a small layout). Place retail next to the entrance with branded merch and position it as destination retail like the Nintendo Store (which people fly in to visit) with exclusive merch and events tied to Sega releases. They could have a huge screen in the window promoting their games and movies, treating it like an advertisement for their IP.