Ian Ritter is national online editor of GlobeSt.RETAIL.

ARLINGTON, VA-The Mills Corp. is spending $800 million on center redevelopments and expansions that will open between this year and 2008. And that's not including the new centers the locally based company plans to build in the US and Europe in the coming years.

At the 2.1-million-sf Del Amo Fashion Center, in Torrance, CA, the company is adding a lifestyle wing, food court and AMC Theater in former Montgomery Ward space that executives expect to complete next year. That project, currently under construction, is a $170-million undertaking. Also at that center, Mills officials plan to expand its fashion retail offering and add a department store at an anticipated cost of $97.8 million and completion date some time in 2008.

At its 961,000-sf Shops at Riverside, in Hackensack, NJ, Mills will spend $115 million on an expansion that includes the relocation of a portion of an anchor tenant, to open next year or in 2007. At the 992,000-sf Broward Mall, in Plantation, FL, the company will spend $81 million on the addition of a cinema, lifestyle addition and restaurants, to be completed in 2007. Domestically, the company is also working on a number of smaller projects across the country.