The company wants to put an additional 200,000 square feet of shops and restaurants in the mall's west parking lot. The expansion is intended to bring a more urban feel to West Valley City, with shops lining 2700 West and encircling a public plaza. Mid-box stores would jut out from the mall's current facade to break up its rundown exterior.

"We're certainly excited to see the mall making changes," said Steve Pastorik, the city's long-range planning manager, who noted there have been discussions of a mall face-lift since he joined the city 11 years ago.

The Planning Commission reviewed the designs at a study meeting Wednesday. The commissioners will take public comments next week before deciding whether to grant approval.

"It is a huge boost to the city," Jack Matheson, a planning commissioner, said at the meeting.

Renovating the 29-year-old mall is a key component of the city's plans to create a civic center in the blocks surrounding City Hall, an area that is slated to get a transit hub and TRAX stop in 2011.

The $55 million to $65 million Valley Fair Mall transformation has been scaled back from original plans that called for a housing component, which would have added new residents to the city center. Scott Satterfield, co-owner of Satterfield-Helm, told the City Council last summer that completing the five-story condominium buildings with street-level retail would delay the entire project two years.

The company is shooting to complete the additional retail pads in time for the Christmas 2008 shopping season. Another round of improvements could follow in spring 2009.

"It will be a positive impact for the community itself," Holly Curby, Valley Fair Mall's marketing director, said in an interview. The goal, she said, is to add "freshness, making you feel like you're in the 21st century instead of the 1980s" when visiting Valley Fair Mall.

Satterfield said Wednesday the mall has verbal commitments from several potential tenants, including Best Buy, Ross Dress for Less, Famous Footwear, Petco and Rumbi Island Grill.

The city has agreed to give back up to $8 million of additional property taxes generated by the new development to help pay for public improvements associated with the renovation.

rwinters@sltrib.com