The latest new McArthurGlen Designer Outlet, in the Belgian city of Ghent, is a joint venture with Belgian real estate company Banimmo, and includes a 32,000 sq m Designer Outlet as well as 14,000 sq m of leisure. The key planning permissions have already been granted, with a planned opening for 2016.

Gary Bond, Managing Director, Development, McArthurGlen Group, says: "We are currently under way or in planning with a record amount of outlet space since pioneering the concept of designer outlet retailing in Europe in 1995, with the opening of Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet in the UK. For this next generation of best-in-class designer outlets, we are being increasingly discerning about where we build, what we build and how we go about the development process."

As the Group's first Designer Outlet in North America, McArthurGlen Vancouver is on track to open in 2015, as a joint venture with Vancouver Airport Authority. The centre, with ground works already started, will offer 22,500 sq m of retail space in a first phase with a second, 12,500 sq m phase to follow, and is just three minutes away by SkyTrain from Vancouver International Airport and 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver.

In planning is McArthurGlen Provence, 45-minutes from Aix-en-Provence and 50 minutes from Marseilles. The scheme, which received retail planning approval in January 2013 for 26,000 sq m of GLA, is ideally located: near the junctions of the A8, A7 and A54 motorways, and in the heart of what is France's most important region for tourism after Paris.

In addition, McArthurGlen is currently under way or in planning with around 59,500 sq m of extensions to eight existing centres, including Barberino (Florence), Swindon (Wiltshire, UK), Neumünster (Hamburg), La Reggia (Naples), Noventa di Piave (Venice), Parndorf (Vienna), Düsseldorf (Roermond) and Ashford (London, UK).

This latest expansion phase follows McArthurGlen becoming a joint venture between Simon Property Group Inc (SPG), the world's largest retail development group and a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, and Kaempfer Partners earlier this year, in June.

Gary Bond adds: "As the largest operator of malls and premium outlets in the US and Asia, SPG's unparalleled resources, expertise and relationships bring a new level of financial strength and brand associations to our European market, to enhance our centres and benefit the combined portfolio of our brand partners."

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