British Land : Cheques Metro Bank into Orpington

British Land is pleased to announce that Metro Bank has signed for a 5,300 sq ft unit on a 25 year lease at Nugent Shopping Park in Orpington.

The bank, which is due to open in November, will be the company's second in Kent and the first in British Land's current portfolio. The deal makes good use of the relaxation in planning policy earlier in the year permitting change of use from retail A1 to A2.

The signing follows recent lettings at the park to Card Factory and pop up restaurant concept Pizza1889.

Edward Cree, Senior Asset Manager for British Land, said: "Metro Bank is an excellent addition to Nugent Shopping Park's mix and will be a welcome community amenity, providing consumers with a seven day banking facility to meet their busy schedules. The letting is part of our continued focus on creating well managed environments with a broad, convenient and high quality tenant line up."

Nugent Shopping Park is a 115,000 sq ft purpose-built 22-unit scheme with 363 car park spaces. Occupiers include Debenhams, M&S, Next, Clarks, Hobbycraft, Waterstones, Nando's and Costa.

British Land was represented by Wilkinson Williams. Metro Bank represented itself.

About British Land

We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £17.8 billion (British Land share of which is £12.0 billion), as valued at 31 March 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 53% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across 66 retail parks, 85 superstores, 15 shopping centres, 12 department stores and 77 leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 47% of our portfolio is focused on London. We have an attractive mix of high-quality buildings in well-managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.3 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share).

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.