UNITED STATES - The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and Macerich Company are now in planning for the expansion of a 3.5 million retail real estate in Virginia which will see the retail project cross property sectors.

The Tyson’s Corner Center retail project in McLean, Virginia, currently 50% owned by Alaska Permanent Fund and Macerich, is moving into new territory is already the eight-largest shopping centre in the United States a 2.1 million square feet in space.

The project is said to create a "transit-oriented community village" with four phases of expansion over the next 10 to 15 years, the first of which should start in 2009 to total 1.34m s.f of class A office space, no more than 355 residential units, as either condos or apartments, and a four-flag full-service hotel property totaling 300 units.

One of the key components for the project is a new mass transit metro stop will be developed by 2012 or 2013, giving all of the entities contained within the expansion a direct link to downtown Washington DC.

Dave Stuart, the real estate investment officer for Alaska, said: "The expansion opportunity will allow us to carve out a special asset for the area and create a unique property for our real estate portfolio. This will be an important project for us, given that Tyson’s Corner Center is the single largest real estate asset that we own."

Melanie Balfour-Heywood, senior vice president of development for Macerich, continued: "The added space gives us a chance to create a new urban core for the part of Virginia where the property is located and have a major economic impact on the region for a long time."