Borehamwood's 13-year-old Boulevard 25 Shopping Centre is to be given a major facelift.
Work has started on stripping the centre, which opened in 1988, of its dated 1980s-style features, and, when completed in two years time, a modern new shopping centre should emerge.
The exterior of the buildings will be made more attractive, with floor-to-ceiling columns, a new lighting system and extra glass.
A new doctor's surgery is planned for the site, and a long-term plan to build an entrance from Shenley Road, drawing in more shoppers on foot, is still in the pipeline.
Manager Bernard Davy said that during the 1980s retail parks were built on the outskirts of many British towns, drawing shoppers away from their high streets.
But, he said, because Boulevard 25 was built in Borehamwood's town centre, it could be used to bring more shoppers to Shenley Road, instead of taking them away. The first new store, on the site of a furniture warehouse which closed in January, will be finished in around eight weeks.
The building has been stripped back to its breezeblocks, and is now being rebuilt, with an extra floor being inserted to get rid of the old warehouse look.
Over the next two years, more of the warehouse-style shops are due to be converted into smaller units, to help Boulevard 25 become more of a shopping centre than a retail park.
Mr Davy said he was concerned that people might have seen the empty furniture store being stripped out, or heard about the Tempo store closing, and assumed the centre was in trouble.
He admitted that Marks & Spencer had decided not to open a store in Boulevard 25, but added that the centre's owners would not be investing in refurbishments if the site was losing money.
"Nobody in their right mind would put money into a dead area. The landlord here is not just putting in a few bob, it's quite a few thousand pounds, probably hundreds of thousands of pounds.
"We have got tenants who are queuing to get in as soon as the buildings are ready," he said.
