Included in the deal is a 50% stake in the two-million-sf TysonsCorner Center in McLean, VA, the highest-profile property owned byRochester, NY-based Wilmorite. Bloomingdales, Hecht's, LLBean, Lord&Taylor and Nordstrom anchor that center. The othersuper-regional centers on the East Coast that Macerich will acquireare the 1.5-million-sf Freehold (NJ) Raceway Mall and the1.3-million-sf Danbury (CT) Fair Mall. The average sales per-sf ofTysons, Freehold and Danbury are $525. Arthur Coppola, Macerich'spresident and CEO, says there are expansion opportunities at Tysonsand Freehold.

Currently Macerich, based here, owns one East Coast gem, theQueens (NY) Mall, a center that it recently expanded at a cost of$275 million, but the majority of its centers are on the West Coastand in the Southwest. The remainder of the Wilmorite deal is madeup of centers in upstate New York and Kentucky, and the totalportfolio's sales per-sf are $403.

Wilmorite officials said in October that they were exploring"strategic alternatives." One issue brought up by analysts at thetime was whether Wilmorite would be able to include its 50% stakein Tysons as part of the deal because the other partner in thecenter, Alaska Permanent Fund, might try to block thetransaction.