Mall 205 is still lacking a pulse, but surgery is imminent. Beginning this fall, a $15 million infusion that includes a completely renovated shell and three new pads fronting Washington Street will add strong new retailers and restaurateurs where now there is old and weak. The changes will displace more than a dozen tenants, but many new jobs will be created, and things will be much improved for those that remain, Bruning said.

Instead of names like Emporium, Montgomery Ward and "a very tired Rite Aid," Bruning says there'll be Home Depot, a full-service 24-Hour Fitness and Mars Music, a Tampa, Fla.-based company just beginning to place superstores on the West Coast. Instead of a sea of parking from street to storefronts, Pier One Imports, Red Robin and one other restaurant will add roadside appeal.

Moreover, instead of under $10 million in revenue from the north end of the mall where Emporium and Rite Aid operated, the Home Depot that replaces them should alone generate $110 million in annual sales, Bruning said. Instead of an overall net operating income of $1.6 million, it will generate $4.5 million, he said.