Capital and Regional Properties who are building the £60 million structure have confirmed an opening date of May 2000 and officially named the development "Xscape". The original name was "Crystal Mountain".

This will be Europe's largest snow dome when it opens. At 170m in length the slope will be 20 metres longer than the slope in Tamworth and the slope's 60 metre width is also bigger than most existing domes outside Japan.

It will also use the Acer Snowmec system of snowmaking, in contrast to the Tamworth slope that uses the ProSnow International snow system. The slope will contain 1,500 tonnes of fresh snow, year round, when operational.

The Xscape complex will also feature a 16 screen multiplex cinema, a 38,000 square foot state of the art health and leisure centre as well as a designer shopping mall with an impressive array of fashion and lifestyle retail outlets, cafes bars and restaurant. If that's not enough visitors will also find a 60,000 square feet entertainment centre with ten pin bowling, Old Orleans restaurant and a jazz bar. It'll probably be very loud as well.

There's some more information from the architects, who report that the slope will be 220m in length. The official site has the slope down for 170m (shame).

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