An open, outdoor area filled with shops, restaurants and a movie theater: This is the future of the north wing of the Del Amo Fashion Center on Hawthorne Boulevard.

Kevin Kudlo, the vice president of development for the Mills Corporation and spokesperson for the managers and owners of the Del Amo Fashion Center said that the north wing of the mall is currently undergoing construction to become an open air plaza.

The new section of the mall will be called the “Lifestyle Wing.”

The Lifestyle Wing will be completed and opened to the public by summer 2006.

The rest of the mall will remain enclosed.

“The revitalization will transform Del Amo into a premier shopping and entertainment destination for the twenty-first century, and a source of pride for Torrance and the South Bay,” Kudlo said.

“The three hundred million dollar makeover is a big effort, as you can see when you drive by the construction site,” Kludo said.

But Kudlo said that while the Lifestle Wing is being built, the rest of Del Amo Fashion Center will ramain open for customers to visit.

This in cludes not only the stores and restaurants in the open sections of the mall but also the stores that have been re-located to make room for the construction of the “Lifestyle Wing.”

Kludo said that the new tenants to occupy the Lifestyle Wing will be formally announced when their leases are documented completely, but he said that the Lifestyle Wing will feature local, regional and national stores.

“It (the Lifestyle Wing) is supposed to be like ‘The Block’ in Orange County,” Christina Auila, the assistant manager of Fredrick’s of Hollywood at Del Amo Fashion Center said.

The Montgomery Ward department store location, which has been closed for a long time, will be torn down and the stores Anchor Blue, Fredrick’s of Hollywood, the Gap, Gap Kids and Lane Bryant have been relocated to other areas of the mall to make way for the construction.

Some stores, such as The Gap, will be relocated once more to the Lifestyle Wing after the plaza is completed, Betsy Jackson, a sales associate for The Gap said.

“It will be better for us,” Auila said. “It will bring people here, to the lonely end of the mall.”

Auila said that the north wing of the mall had seldom attracted many customers. Mary Songco, a 21-one-year-old administration of justice major at EC said that she thinks the new construction will liven up the north wing of the mall.

“It’s really dead over there right now,” Songco said.

Kudlo said that the renovations should make the north wing more up-to-date and entertaining to modern customers of all background and ages.

In 1959 The Del Amo mall originally consisted of two separate department stores: The location of where Sears Department Store and The Broadway was, has now become a Macy’s Home Furniture Store.

Many other stores began to take residence in the same area throughout the ’60s and ’70s.

In 1979 and 1980, through a Kudlo called the “marriage of the malls,” these individual stores were joined together and became the large Del Amo Fashion Center.

“Popular department stores then are now a part of history. Places like Ohrbach’s, Bullocks’ and The Broadway drew customers from far and wide in Del Amo’s heyday,” Kudlo said.

Sharon Bateman, vice president of coorporate communications at May Department Stores, which owns Robinson’s-May said that May Department Stores and Federated Department Stores inc., which owns Macy’s, are going to join forces.

This means that in the Del Amo Fashion Center, Macy’s and Robinson’s-May will be owned by the same company. This will be yet another change to the mall.

Kudlo said that the renovations are now being made to entertain modern customers.

“We’ve promised Torrance residents we would restore Del Amo’s excitement and make it a true destination center, a source of pride for Torrance and the South Bay,” Kudlo said. “We’re fulfilling that promise and moving forward.”

The construction is being funded by the Mills Corporation, which purchased and began planning the construction in 2003.

It is also being funded by the Mills Corporation’s Goldman Sachs and equity partner JPMorgan Fleming. The construction costs $300 million.

Kudlo said that the construction has not caused a decrease in customers at the mall, and that the mall had successful sales during the holiday season, despite the construction.

“Even as we focus on construction, we will also remain committed to providing our customers with a safe, clean, and pleasant shopping experience,” Kudlo said.

Additional directional signs and other new amenities are being added, all with the customers’ convenience in mind,” he said.