Oct. 6--Washington state developer Bob McDonald said the West Park Plaza mall is broken and he's the man to fix it.

After unfurling bulky drawings illustrating the remake of Billings' first mall, McDonald pointed to a 150-foot-wide swath he's going to carve out of the middle of the mall, just west of the current Hastings Books Music & Videos.

The interior of the mall will be converted into an old-fashioned "Main Street" where cars can park and pedestrians can sit at tables or window shop.

"The mall hasn't worked in 20 years. You can shoot a gun in there," McDonald said. "I think the best thing to do is to de-mall the mall."

He's not the first to propose knocking down the middle of the mall so more stores can have exterior windows and access. The previous owner, California-based Western Development Partners, first proposed the "de-malling" concept. After buying the property in June 21, 2007, Western Development officials promised to spend up to $15 million to transform the mall that dates back half a century. However, the developers apparently failed to land a big fish tenant and sold out to McDonald before making any major improvements.

"I think they were looking for a 75,000 square-foot or an 80,000 square-foot tenant to anchor the west end of the mall and they're hard to come by," McDonald said.

Like sheep, big box stores follow each other around and land at the same location. McDonald's plan is to attract smaller quality retailers.

This remake will be done in two phrases. By late April or early May of 2009, Hastings and another tenant or two will move into the former Albertsons/Smith's Food & Drug Center. Hastings will stay in the Albertsons wing and will be redesigned into the latest prototype where books, videos and music are grouped together in color-coded settings.

Most of the existing tenants will stay put, but all of the exterior storefronts will be redone.

In phase two, the demolition and remodeling efforts will start. All the interiors, save Sears, will be remodeled, including new electrical and heating, ventilating and air conditioning. The three other long-time anchors, Sears, Roebuck & Co; Oz Fitness and CVS Pharmacy will stay in the same locations.

After leasing space for years at West Park, last year Sears purchased its building and six acres of land.

"Sears told us they want an entrance to our 16th Street Main Street, but at this point they have no plans to redevelop their store," said Jeff Kanning, a partner at Collaborative Design Architects, who is designing McDonald's project.