CSC is a subsidiary of London- and South Africa-listed property group Liberty International plc. Lakeside, boasting 1.38 million square feetof space, opened in 1990, the first regional shopping centre in the southof England.

Together with the adjoining Retail Park, it now forms the largest shoppingarea in Europe.

Lakeside has nearly 300 shops and four department stores, plus a wide selection of cafes and restaurants, a 7 screen multiplex cinema, 13,000 free car parking spaces and bus and train stations.

Speaking at today's ceremony, Capital Shopping Centres' Chairman Donald Gordon said: "We are here to celebrate the completion of a £30-million investment in a refurbishment scheme which has transformed Lakeside andprovided a new standard of service for our customers."

Gordon said retailers and shoppers alike had given Lakeside's new look an enthusiastic welcome. Some 50 retailers at Lakeside had already refitted their own stores, introducing latest concepts to complement the new surroundings.

Fashion retailer Next was expanding its space, bringing the store tojust over 63,000 sq.ft; the new space would be available for trading by Christmas 2005.

CSC was also working on exciting plans to introduce more leisure to Lakeside's Pavilion.

The refurbishment programme took some 18 months to complete and was the latest phase of a continuing process of ensuring that Lakeside kept up to date with retail trends.

The programme was finalised after extensive consultation with shoppers and retailers, and called for overtiling of the malls with Italian porcelain flooring, new lighting, a new ceiling and new glass roofs, flooding themalls with light.

There were new, faster lifts, more escalators and automatic entrance doors. There was also more mall seating and new "comfort zones" with tables and comfortable seats.

Most of the work was carried out during the night to ensure minimum disruption to shopping.

CSC is the leading company in the UK specialising in the ownership, management and development of regional shopping centres.

As well as Lakeside, it owns MetroCentre Gateshead, Braehead Glasgow and six major in-town regional centres and is engaged on a substantial development programme involving both new city centre schemes in Norwich,Cardiff and Oxford, and extensions to existing shopping centres.

Overall, CSC owns and manages some 8 million square feet of retail space,attracting 175 million customer visits a year.

I-Net Bridge