British Land : Rock Up, Fussy Nation and Glow & Co Set to Climb into Whiteley

British Land and Universities Superannuation Scheme Ltd (USS) are pleased to announce that Rock Up, Glow & Co and Fussy Nation are the latest operators to sign at Whiteley, further broadening the high quality offer at the retail and leisure destination in Hampshire.

Indoor climbing adventure operator Rock Up, home fragrance retailer Glow & Co and independent fashion retailer Fussy Nation are all set to join the scheme in the next few weeks.

Rock Up has chosen Whiteley to create the UK's first new, thrilling climbing experience situated at a retail location. The new indoor leisure experience will combine climbing, soft play and high quality food. The flagship site will provide 26 climbs including moving wall parts, speed climbs, inflatable climbs and lots more. Rock Up is taking 4,768 sq ft on a 10 year lease.

Independent fashion retailer Fussy Nation has taken 1,707 sq ft on a five year lease for its first store outside London. The store will stock a unique, handpicked selection of ladies and menswear from exciting new designers, boutique labels and world renowned designers bringing new brands including Ralph Lauren, Barbour, Hugo Boss and Hackett to Whiteley.

Gift retailer, Glow & Co, which specialises in bath and body products and home fragrance including scented candles, diffusers and home fragrance items, will open a 1,707 sq ft store on a five year lease.

Claire Barber, Head of Shopping Centre Asset Management for British Land, said: "We are continuing to see strong demand from a broad range of occupiers and are particularly excited to introduce a UK first with the Rock Up concept. We are taking more new retail and leisure operators out of town and introducing innovative new concepts that will encourage people to visit more frequently and stay for longer."

Heidi Duckworth and Aaran Eade, Rock Up's founders, added: "Rock Up provides a thrilling, active climbing experience which not only caters for the whole family but serves to increase dwell time in the centre and is a destination in its own right. Rock Up has ambitious plans to roll out multiple sites over the next few years as the trend to broaden the leisure offer at retail destinations continues."

Work has also started on an £18 million leisure extension which will open in summer 2015. The second phase will deliver a nine-screen Cineworld cinema and 30,000 sq ft of additional restaurant and leisure space including Five Guys, Nando's, PizzaExpress and Coast to Coast. The extension is 75 per cent let with just two units still available.

Situated between the two harbour cities of Portsmouth and Southampton and adjacent to a Tesco supermarket, the scheme benefits from excellent accessibility via junction nine of the M27.

Whiteley's other retailers include seven independent retailers and Bank, Fat Face, H&M, Jones Bootmaker, Joules, Marks & Spencer, Monsoon, Next, Paperchase, Phase Eight, River Island, schuh and Topshop. Restaurants include Chimichanga, Dean's Diner, Frankie & Benny's, Prezzo, Wagamama, YO! Sushi and independent bistro Montagu's. The shopping centre also provides 1,355 car parking spaces and Market Square provides space for a variety of independent markets.

 Notes to Editors:

About Universities Superannuation Scheme

Universities Superannuation Scheme was established in 1975 as the principal defined benefit pension scheme for universities and other higher education institutions in the UK.  It has over 330,000 scheme members across nearly 400 institutions and is the largest pension schemes in the UK, with total fund assets of approximately £40 billion, of which property assets total approximately £2.6bn.

The scheme's trustee is Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, a corporate trustee which provides scheme management and trusteeship from its offices based in Liverpool and London.  The trustee company delegates implementation of its investment strategy to a wholly-owned investment management subsidiary company - USS Investment Management Limited - which provides both investment management and advisory services.

USS's property portfolio is part of an overall strategy to develop private market investment opportunities that fit well with the scheme's long-term pension liabilities.

For more information on Universities Superannuation Scheme please go to www.uss.co.uk.

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.