Bluewater Shopping Centre (commonly referred to as Bluewater) is an out-of-town shopping centre in Stone (postally Greenhithe), Kent, England, outside the M25 motorway, east south east of London's centre. Opened on 16 March 1999 in a former chalk quarry after ten years of building works, the site (including car parks) occupies and has a sales floor area of 154,000 m2 (1,600,000 ft2) over three levels, making it the fifth-largest shopping centre in the UK (after Westfield London, 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 17-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 in West Thurrock, Essex, just across the River Thames, away by road or as the crow flies. It is owned by three major UK institutions: Landsec (55%), Prudential and PRUPIM (35%) and Hermes (10%). History The Secretary of State granted planning permission for the centre in 1990 following an earlier planning inquiry. In 1994, quarry operator Blue Circle approached Australian mall developer Lendlease 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. Lendlease 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. That 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, 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. In May