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Bluewater Shopping Centre (commonly referred to as Bluewater) is an out of town shopping centre in Stone (postally Greenhithe), Kent, England, outside the M25 Orbital motorway, east south-east of London's centre. Opened on 16 March 1999 in a former chalk quarry after three years of building, the site including car parks occupies and has a sales floor area of 154,000 m2 (1,600,000 ft2) over two levels, making it the fourth-largest shopping centre in the UK (after the MetroCentre, Trafford Centre and Westfield Stratford City). Elsewhere in Europe only Istanbul's Cevahir Mall and Vienna's (Vösendorf) Shopping City Süd are bigger. The floor plan is a triangular shape with 330 stores, including 3 anchors, 40 cafés and restaurants, and a 13-screen cinema. The centre employs 7,000 people and serves over visitors a year. A main rival is the Lakeside Shopping Centre and its two retail parks by road away in West Thurrock, Essex, just across the River Thames or point-to-point. It is owned by four major UK institutions, Prudential plc and PRUPIM (35%), Land Securities (30%), the Lend Lease Retail Partnership (25%) and Hermes (10%).〔(Bluewater | Corporate )〕 ==History== In 1994, quarry operator Blue Circle approached Australian mall developer Lend Lease to form a partnership. Instead, Lend Lease bought the land and the project from Blue Circle, and under the leadership of its CEO Peter Walichnowski gathered a group of major investors, which included: Prudential, Barclays Mercantile, Hermes (acting for Britel), Lloyds Leasing, and Royal Bank Leasing. Lend Lease also formed a pool of minor investors, called the Lend Lease Retail Partnership, with 18 institutions and corporations. John Lewis was the first major tenant to sign up in February 1995, albeit with major concessions, such as the offer of , one-fifth of the entire floor space, on three levels. This gave Bluewater credibility to sign more names, including the two other anchor stores: House of Fraser followed in June 1996 by Marks & Spencer. 90% of the retail space was committed by March 1998. Construction, undertaken by Bovis Lend Lease,〔(Bovis' reputation is cornering the shopping market ) Contract Journal, 17 September 1997〕 started on 1 May 1996. At its peak, the site employed 2,500 workers simultaneously. In all, 20,000 people worked hours on the construction of Bluewater. At the planned opening date, 16 March 1999, Bluewater was inaugurated with 99% of the shops open for business. The total cost of construction was around GBP £400 million.〔Emma Dorreen, editor/project manager; Michael Evamy, writer (1999). ''Vision to Reality''. London: Lend Lease. ISBN 0-9537054-0-4.〕 In May 2005, Bluewater introduced a code of conduct to ban swearing, clothing that obscures the face (including hoods and baseball caps), and groups of more than five without the intention to shop.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=BBC news-Bluewater introduces code of conduct )〕 The policy has divided opinion, although Tony Blair did show support.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bluewater (shopping centre)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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