New Meadowhall Lettings

British Land Co PLC
02 October 2002

                                                                  2 October 2002





                        Major New Lettings at Meadowhall



The British Land Company PLC has agreed major new lettings at its Meadowhall
Shopping Centre in Sheffield.



One of the most hotly awaited new stores to open will be Spanish fashion
favourite, Zara, which will take a 10,035 sq ft unit in a prime High Street
location at Meadowhall on a 15-year lease, on a rent rising to £950,000 per
annum in Year 5.  This unit was formerly occupied by Dorothy Perkins, now
relocated elsewhere in the Centre.  Zara is due to begin shop fitting shortly,
with a view to opening in December.



Meanwhile, leading men's and ladies' fashion retailer, USC, has taken a 8,733 sq
ft High Street unit on a 15-year lease at £850,000 per annum.  Shop fitting work
will commence shortly, with the unit due to open mid-October.



That unit was formerly occupied by Sportswear giant, Sports Soccer, which has
vacated to take a larger unit in Market Street, on a ten-year lease, at
£1,000,000 per annum.  Shop fitting is currently under way and the store is due
to open mid-October.  Sports Soccer has operated in Meadowhall since 1998 and
the decision to move to premises nearly four times the size reflects the
company's success in the Centre.



In addition, a number of new lettings on smaller units have also been recently
agreed.  Leading footwear retailer, Schuh, has recently opened a 6,164 sq ft
unit (including mezzanine level) on a 15-year lease, at £335,000 per annum;
while the famous shirt company, Van Heusen, opened a new 500 sq ft store in
mid-August, again on a 15-year lease, at an average rent of £100,000 per annum.



Two more lettings agreed and shortly to open are surfwear specialists,
Quiksilver, which will be opening a new 3,400 sq ft store (including mezzanine
level) on a 10-year lease, at £250,000 per annum, and men's and women's branded
fashion retailer, Monserrat, which has taken a 3,200 sq ft unit on a long-term
lease at £380,000 per annum.



Bob Bowden, Director of British Land said, "These new lettings reinforce
Meadowhall's position as the premier shopping destination in Yorkshire and add
to its far reaching retail offer in time for the busy Christmas trading period.
The new lettings, together with rent reviews settled have increased annualised
rental income by over £2 million per annum since March this year, which is in
line with our expectations of achieving revenue of £67m when outstanding rent
reviews and lettings are completed."



Contacts:



The British Land Company PLC                             Tel: [phone]

Bob Bowden, Director

Peter Clarke, Joint Head of Asset Management



Finsbury
Tel: [phone]

Edward Orlebar

Faeth Birch





Note to Editors



Meadowhall Shopping Centre, Sheffield



Meadowhall is one of the largest and most successful shopping centres in the
United Kingdom. The freehold Centre has excellent transport links, with two
direct approaches from junction 34 of the M1 motorway, free parking for more
than 12,000 vehicles, and an on site transport interchange with train, tram and
bus services which are used by around 20% of visitors. The total Meadowhall site
is 68 hectares (167 acres).



The fully enclosed two level mall has a gross lettable area of 132,000 sq m
(1,420,000 sq ft ). There are 195 shop units, 10 anchor stores, an 11 screen
Warner Village cinema, 28 speciality kiosks and 21 mall kiosks, all arranged in
several distinctive areas; 27 restaurants and cafes, including the Oasis food
court, together provide seating for some 3,300.  Anchor stores are Marks &
Spencer, House of Fraser, Debenhams, Next, Allders Home, Sainsbury's, WH Smith,
Boots, H & M and BHS.



Meadowhall continues to be attractive to both retailers and their customers. For
multiple retailers at Meadowhall, 80% of their units are in the top 10
performing outlets of their company, for 26% they are the retailers' best
performing outlet in the country.



Customer visits continue to increase, up by a further 300,000 visits in the year
to December 2001 to total of 24.1 million. Average spend per party in the
December 2001 peak survey was £146.40 per visit, up 0.4% on the equivalent
period in the previous year.  During the off-peak survey in June 2002 spend was
£98.93, up 12.4%.



Several initiatives were successfully launched in the last twelve months: the
remodelled Meadowhall website won Business Internet Magazine's "Best Website
Design" and "Best Overall Website" awards and now receives up to 78,000 "hits"
per day.



Go Shop, the customer loyalty programme launched Autumn 2001, has already
attracted more than 50,000 subscribers who are incentivised to visit the Centre
to find out about special offers and events via email, text message and
interactive kiosks located throughout the Centre.



The installation of a fibre optic network has facilitated the introduction of
the Go Shop kiosks as well as a retailer intranet which enables fast and
efficient communication at the Centre and already has 170 retailers connected.



The centre management team has built upon their earlier successes in being
awarded the British Safety Council's 5 Star Environmental Management Audit and
Sword of Honour in recognition of achievement of high standards of safety.










                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange