Assigning a string to a property of type string

<serializable()>
   Public Class BeanstreamHash

       Private _merchantID As Long
       Public Property MerchantID() As Long
           Get
               Return _merchantID
           End Get
           Set(ByVal value As Long)
               _merchantID = value
           End Set
       End Property
       Private _alphanumericValue As String
       Public Property AlphanumericValue() As String
           Get
               Return _alphanumericValue
           End Get
           Set(ByVal value As String)
               _alphanumericValue = value
           End Set
       End Property
   End Class

    Dim result As String = DAL.GetAlphanumericValue(MerchantID)
         If Not result Is Nothing Then
             beanstreamhash = New CommonObjects.BeanstreamHash
          beanstreamhash.MerchantID = MerchantID
             beanstreamhash.AlphanumericValue = result
          RetVal.BeanstreamList.Add(beanstreamhash)

        End If
    Catch ex As Exception


    End Try

    Return RetVal

End Function