But Mr Phillips expresses concerns that its separation from Broad Street by a good walk and busy dual carriageway, which can be crossed through a 1970s underpass, may turn Broadway Plaza's location, squarely in Ladywood, into a handicap when it comes to attracting visitors.
"Some operators doubt that it can pull visitors away from the more accessible Five Ways and the city's many other attractions," Mr Phillips adds.
That fear is rejected by Kate Bennett, Broadway Plaza development manager, who would rather that operators viewed it as the gateway to Broad Street.
The proof is there, she says.
Now that the 20-lane Wessex Bowl bowlplex and pool hall, the #4 million Esporta health club and the 12-screen AMC cinema complex have been signed up, other operators are joining them and the site should be at least 75 per cent let by its scheduled opening in October, she says.
Broadway Plaza expects some 20 operators in retail, restaurant and bars to take lettings at the site, home also to 114 apartments to be built by CALA Homes.
Of enormous benefit to Broadway Plaza, says Ms Bennett, is the 1,400 underground parking spaces.
A new pedestrian crossing will be put in place across Ladywood Middleway, close to Broad Street.
"We are not Mailbox or Broad Street," says Ms Bennett. "We appeal to a different market. This is going to be more family entertainment, somewhere parents can take their children in the day and evening.
"And in the evening, if people come to Broadway Plaza for a meal or to use the facilities, it will be a different experience to the Mailbox.
"It all depends what people want. Not only is it a destination in its own right, it is linked quite nicely to Broad Street."
However, Mr Phillips feels it is more realistic to see Birmingham's leisure offer extend eastwards, via the Mailbox, to reach out and join up with the city's other main leisure district around Hurst Street - known for an eclectic range of entertainment, from the Chinese and gay quarters to the Hippodrome, Glee Club and range of clubs such as Ice Bar and Zanzibar.
Rents here are around #15 to #20 per sq ft - levels which, according to Mr Phillips, are making this area ever more attractive to new operators.
Plans are being drawn up for a mixed-use scheme for B5 Southside, the Gooch Estate?s site on Hurst Street opposite the Arcadian, to include bars, restaurants, and other leisure uses.
With Mailbox's leisure offer growing and its connecting pedestrian thoroughfare to Broad Street via the canal towpaths becoming ever more established, the question remains how to link the Mailbox and Hurst Street to provide Birmingham with one long, unbroken leisure strip.
"As so often, the answer to the future lies in the past," says Mr McPhillips, pointing to the fact that some 15 years ago John Bright Street was at the heart of Birmingham's leisure industry.
It was a lively combination of pubs and clubs and anyone who drank in the city in the 1980s visited John Bright Street.
"However, leisure operators in John Bright Street did not respond to the development of Broad Street's wider and more modern offer and, with dwindling visitor numbers and a lack of investment, John Bright Street has truly become the street which time forgot."
Yet, though clearly suffering from under-investment from current operators and almost deserted during daylight hours, John Bright Street boasts the most cutting leisure edge venue in the city.
Hundreds travel from far afield every Saturday night to dance at Sundissential at Club DNA.
Developers have not been slow to recognise the potential of the surrounding area, which is a stone?s throw from New Street station.
"Current operators of the clubs and pubs on the street are finally beginning to wake up to the new potential of John Bright Street as the lynchpin which in the future will hold together Birmingham?s two leisure areas into one combined leisure strip," says Mr Phillips.
"When this happens, then we will have truly gone back to the future."
But with a little imagination there was no reason for any development to fail says Ian Ward, Labour councillor for Shard End and Cabinet spokesman for leisure, sport and culture.
The investment on Broad Street had detracted from John Bright Street, he admits.
But given further investment in John Bright Street there was the real possibility that it would once again draw visitors in large numbers and act as an attractive addition and extension to the Broad Street attractions.
Eastside, the learning quarter with Millennium Point, home to the proposed new library and with plans for a range of bars and cafes, will also be a magnet to visitors, says Mr Phillips.
Water taxis could ferry the public from one area to another and in so doing make use of the city's canal network and provide links between Broad Street, Brindleyplace and Eastside while offering the opportunity for further canalside development.
Star City, with its 30-screen multiplex cinema complex, Megabowl and themed restaurants sitting two miles north of the city centre did have a problem of location, he felt, but not one that couldn't be overcome.
"Star City is stuck out on the Spine Road - but the way to get that working is to get hotels on site, to develop the vacant sites," says Mr McPhillips.
"Then the place would begin to draw people in. I am optimistic about the future of the leisure industry in the city. Birmingham has a good track record of getting major developments right."
