The British Land Company plc : Cineworld to Open at Whiteley as Consent for £15.5m Second Phase Secured

British Land and Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) are pleased to announce that Cineworld is to open a nine-screen cinema as part of the £15.5 million second phase of its Whiteley development in Hampshire.

The 60,000 sq ft complex has been granted planning permission by Winchester City Council and includes 30,000 sq ft of space at ground floor level that will include a combination of additional restaurants, leisure and community uses, broadening the appeal of the development.

David Pollock, Development Manager for British Land, said: "Whiteley's second phase will further increase the vibrancy of the retail scheme, enhancing dwell times and the centre's attractiveness to local residents and workers. The additional leisure element will complement the restaurant offer boosting the attraction of the centre as a retail and leisure destination throughout the daytime and evening as well as bringing additional jobs to the area."

The cinema will be located to the north east of the site.  Around 180 jobs will be created in addition to a number of temporary jobs during the construction phase. Construction work will commence in early 2014 with completion scheduled for spring 2015.

Whiteley's first phase is anchored by a 60,000 sq ft M&S and opened on 23 May attracting more than 750,000 visitors in its first month of trading.  Other signed retailers include Bank, Beaverbrooks, Blacks, Boots, Carphone Warehouse, Claire's, Clarks, Clintons, Fat Face, H&M, Holland & Barrett, JD Sports, Jones Bootmaker, Mamas and Papas, Moss, Next, Paperchase, Phase Eight, Phones 4u, River Island, Sabichi, Schuh, The Body Shop, The Entertainer, Tiger, Topshop, Trespass, and WH Smith. Restaurants and cafes include Caffe Nero, Chimichanga, Costa Coffee, Dean's Diner, Frankie & Benny's, Harvester, Prezzo, Starbucks, Subway and independent bistro Montagu's which has a glazed kiosk in the mall.

Local independent retailers include Little Soles children's shoe shop, the Fabulous Bakers, Whiteley Fruiterers greengrocers, Russell's Sweet Shop, Xpress Beauty, Solent Cycles and Hair OTT. Local estate agent Walker & Waterer has also taken a unit in another part of the scheme and Market Square itself will provide space for a variety of independent markets.  The shopping centre also provides 1,355 car parking spaces.

Whiteley benefits from a large and affluent catchment of 1.2 million people with an estimated £3.1 billion potential spend.  The catchment is set to expand further in the foreseeable future with 3,500 new homes at North Whiteley.

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

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

About USS
USS is one of the largest private sector pension funds in the UK with property assets totalling approximately £2.5bn.  www.uss.co.uk.

British Land
British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £16.9 billion (British Land share £11.0 billion), as valued at 31 March 2013 but adjusted for recent acquisitions and disposals, notably a major interest in Paddington Central.

Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 million visits each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Following our purchase of Paddington Central, our occupancy rate is 96.2% and average lease length to first break is 10.6 years.

Retail assets account for 58% of our portfolio, around 80% of which are located at prime out of town sites. Comprising around 28 million sq ft of retail space across 79 retail parks, 89 superstores, 17 shopping centres and 13 department stores, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 38% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments). Our 7 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End. Since 2010, we have committed £1.2 billion to deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space in London by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business and we focus on five areas which matter most to us and our key stakeholders: managing buildings efficiently; developing sustainable buildings; enhancing biodiversity; exceeding customers' expectations and focusing on local communities. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to our corporate vision of building the best REIT in Europe.

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