"I can't speak for everyone else, but I know that we're looking at our project and wanting to keep it viable, and exciting, and meeting our customers' needs and wants," Neil said of South Towne, which expects to add about 20 retailers and restaurants to its development, all positioned around a 20,000-square-foot central outdoor plaza.

Jim Graham, spokesman for Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which owns Fashion Place and Cottonwood malls, said the company had no specific announcements to make regarding those two properties.

However, Graham said, "we are certainly very actively engaged at this time looking at the market, and we're very bullish on the future of both locations.

"We think there's a good, solid customer base, and a competitive landscape, and we want to be offering the best shopping and entertainment experience that we can offer," Graham said. "We're continuing to look at those two properties and explore ways to make them even better."

At Trolley, developer Jerry Hunt, president and chief operating officer of Blake Hunt Ventures, said the goal was to preserve the property's unique qualities while adding the amenities today's shoppers want.

"We really want to take great care with this property and have it be something that the community has great pride in and which they can say is uniquely their own," Hunt said of the renovation, which is expected to get under way in earnest in early 2007. "We want to make sure that they will not have driven by five other centers like it to get to Trolley — Trolley will really stand out as really an icon-type of retail offering."

Trolley Square's multi- phase, multiyear renovation is expected to include the addition of green space, outdoor fountains and fireplaces, and indoor and outdoor gathering places, in addition to additional retail, underground parking and a brighter interior. It is not expected to affect the historic architecture, water tower or trolley car.

Whether the finished projects will resemble the various developers' ambitious plans remains to be seen, Wood said.

"Announcements are one thing. Actuality is another," he said. "I don't think that everyone is going to reach their expectations — some will be pushed back, or downsized. But that's all part of the market as they fight for retailers."

One thing is for certain, though, according to Wood.

"This is a strong market, and retailers are seeing that opportunity," he said. "The developers won't build unless they get their retailers, and believe me, the retailers look very, very closely at the numbers. The growth: that's what drives it in the end."

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com