Eldersburg, Md. (Map, News) - A developer plans to convert Eldersburg’s half-empty mall into a shopping center that mimics traditional downtowns.

“I envision a great place for the people of Eldersburg to gather, shop, eat and work,” said Dixon Harvey, an Owings Mill developer who owns Carrolltown Center on Liberty Road.

Eldersburg residents have watched Carrolltown devolve from a bustling mall where people used to “mall walk” to a place where even sales associates lament its decline. Many Eldersburg residents shop at The Mall in Columbia or Westminster TownMall.

“All the time, I get questions about ‘What’s happening with Carrolltown mall?’ ” said Nicole Musgrave-Burdette, president of Freedom Area Citizens’ Council, a South Carroll residents’ group.

“A lot of people are disappointed in how it’s gone downhill.”

Musgrave-Burdette said she remembers shopping at the mall in the 1980s, when it was a busy, open-air center with a fountain and food court.

But then “the food court shut down, so no one would spend time there because you couldn’t eat,” she said.

Today, the mall is enclosed and features Kmart, Peebles, Big Lots, Flagship Cinemas, Blockbuster Video, Kustom Kuts Salon, Denny’s restaurant and Bank of America.

The stores were moved to the mall’s perimeter to make way for renovations, but reconstruction has been slow, blocking shoppers from walking store-to-store indoors.

Harvey, who is president of Black Oak Associates, wants to convert the 330,000-square-foot mall into an open-air lifestyle center with retail, restaurants, entertainment and offices to give Eldersburg — an unincorporated community of 30,000 that lacks a Main Street — a town center.

Redevelopment is slated for 2008-09, according to Black Oak’s Web site, but Harvey said no timeline has been finalized because he is negotiating with Kmart, the mall’s anchor.

Kimberly Freely, a spokeswoman for Sears Holdings Co., which Kmart owns, said the store was committed to remaining in the development but couldn’t comment on the details of the negotiations.

Harvey will speak at this month’s Freedom Area Citizens’ Council meeting.

IF YOU GO

» What: Carrolltown Center discussion

» When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22

» Where: Freedom Christian Church, Carrolltown Center

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com