Sheffield certainly learned that when the Meadowhall shopping centre, which has about 300 shops, opened in the early 1990s.

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The Meadowhall acquisition is the result of a relatively new policy of buying into property around the world.

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The Meadowhall plant produces specialised very thin forms of stainless steel strip products.

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And it started investing last year in real estate, buying sizeable chunks of Sheffield's Meadowhall shopping centre and London's Regent Street.

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The exhibition for the South Yorkshire scheme will be held at The Source conference centre, in Meadowhall Way, Sheffield during Friday and Saturday.

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By spending in Meadowhall, the shoppers will help local stores pay their rent, and Norwegians will pocket a share of the rental income.

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Factories and shops, including the Meadowhall shopping centre, were badly damaged by flooding in 2007 at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds.

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But Sheffield Council says it will work with the Environment Agency and the private sector to fund further flood defence work as far as Meadowhall.

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In a statement the firm said the plant in Meadowhall, which makes foils of steel, would close early in 2009 and talks were under way with unions.

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Mr Houghton reckons that rebuilding will allow the market to rival the vast Meadowhall shopping centre at Sheffield, which has drained a lot of customers from Barnsley.

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Meadowhall receives busloads from as far away as Penzance.

ECONOMIST: Shopping