Cabot Circus is a shopping mall in Bristol. It is located next to Broadmead, the main shopping district in Bristol city centre. The Cabot Circus development area contains shops, offices, a cinema, hotel and 250 apartments. It covers a total of 139,350 m2 floor space, of which 92,900 m2 is retail outlets and leisure facilities. It opened in September 2008, after a ten year planning and building project costing £500 million. The original chosen name ‘Merchants Quarter’ came under criticism due to its associations to the slave trade. The name of Cabot was chosen following a public vote taken in November 2007, and commemorates John Cabot, an Italian explorer who is closely associated with Bristol.