LAND Securities, one of the UK's biggest commercial property providers, will bankroll the £100 million Fremlin Walk project in Maidstone. In early October it confirmed exchange of contracts with developer Centros Miller to "forward fund" the project.

Land Securities is no stranger to Kent. It has substantial land holdings in the north of the county and is masterminding the Ebbsfleet project.

Ebbsfleet International Station on the route of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link will be the catalyst for huge regeneration and job creation in the Kent Thames-side area linking Gravesend and Dartford.

Plans are well underway for 30,000 new homes and 50,000 new jobs, with an important commercial centre likely to grow up around the station which is due to open in 2007.

The origins of Land Securities go back more than 50 years. It is now a FTSE 100 company, managing 269 properties and investments worth nearly £8 billion. It concentrates on central London offices and shops, shopping centres, retail warehouses and south east industrial premises.

Land Securities acquired its Kent interests when Blue Circle Industries sold developer Whitecliff Properties last year. That gave it Crossways Business Park, Dartford, Stone Castle (a 20-acre site with room for 500 homes), Eastern Quarry (640 acres adjoining Bluewater with potential for 6,200 homes and two million square feet of commercial, retail and leisure development), and Swanscombe Peninsula (350 acres for housing and other development).

Blue Circle paid tribute to "a major and respected property company" that would "ensure that the Kent Thames-side projects continue to be world-class."

The Fremlin Walk deal will add 350,000 sq. ft. of retail property in the heart of Maidstone to Land Securities' portfolio.

Richard Akers, head of retail portfolio management with Land Securities said: "This is an opportunity to add a major shopping centre to our portfolio and pursue our strategy of investing in locations with considerable growth potential and strong retailer demand."