Visitor levels at the 38-year-old mall have plateaued and are at risk of dropping unless the area is rehabilitated, according to a report going before the city's planning committee on Tuesday.

Bayshore is looking to eventually expand its leasable retail space to more than a million square feet, from the current 754,000. The first stage of construction would bring the mall to about 915,000 square feet.

The plans, which revise a proposal from 2008, include more parking spaces, but at a lower ratio than the mall currently has now. Spaces will increase in the interim to 4,110 to 3,470, but decrease to 3,650 as the renovations finish.

The reduction is supposed to spur transit ridership to the mall, the report noted.

"Given the existing high rate of transit ridership among staff and patrons, it is expected that the new daily transit ridership will increase as a result of the proposed expansion," the report stated.

The four-year redevelopment plan would include demolishing the east parking area to add retail space, demolishing and reconstructing parking to the northwest and northeast, and performing mall renovations. Work would begin in spring 2012.

"The property is aging and in need of reinvestment or a deterioration of the property is inevitable," the report read.

City staff did not put a price tag on the expansion, but media reports estimated it would be $150 million.

The housing area across the road from Bayshore is also undergoing a $40 million facelift in the next decade, announced in June. Ferguslea Properties Ltd. pledged building improvements and better safety measures for the 7,000 residents who live in the area, now renamed Accora Village.

Internet site reference: http://www.obj.ca/Real-Estate/Non-residential/2011-10-05/article-2767506/Bayshore-looks-to-expand-by-50-per-cent/1