Just two years after a major expansion that nearly doubled its size, New York's Museum of Modern Art is set to get even bigger.

MoMa has negotiated a deal to sell the parcel of vacant land neighbouring the mid-town Manhattan museum to the international real estate development firm Hines for $125 million US.

As part of the deal, confirmed Wednesday, Hines will build a mixed-use building on the land that will be partially connected to the museum and include display space for it.

Museum officials said the new facility will connect to the current galleries on the second, fourth and fifth levels.

MoMa director Glenn D. Lowry has said the new building would provide about 4,500 square metres of additional exhibition space for the gallery's collection, as well as new storage space in the basement.

Though no timetable has yet be released, nor an architect named to lead the project, the expansion is expected to take at least five years. However, unlike the last project, the museum will remain open for business.

In November 2004, the museum completed a major expansion — a glass-and-steel addition designed by Yoshio Taniguchi — that cost a total of $858-million US and took more than two years to complete, but nearly doubled its size.

With files from the Associated Press