P.OB. Montgomery & Co., a Dallas-based real estate company that owns Franklin Park Mall here, has started an interior demolition in part of the North Side retail center to make room for an unnamed big national retailer.


Lance Taylor, a Dallas-based development partner with P.OB. Montgomery, declines for now to disclose the name of the prospective tenant.


He says, however, that the company sells soft goods and wants to take a 36,000-square-foot space in the mall, which is located along the east side of Division Street between Rowan and Central avenues.


P.OB. Montgomery hopes to finalize a lease with the retailer in early June and start renovation work on the space by June 15, Taylor says. The new tenants space would be between an Outback Steakhouse restaurant and a Rite Aid store, Taylor says, and would have an outdoor storefront facing Division, as do Outback Steakhouse, Rite Aid, and the malls other large tenants.


Franklin Park Malls main entrance currently is located between Outback and Rite Aid.


It would be moved as part of the renovation. A new entrance would be built between a Julies Hallmark store and the Outback Steakhouse and would provide access to the handful of small retail spaces remaining in the enclosed portion of the mall.


P.OB. Montgomery also is considering other improvements at the mall, Taylor says, including repainting the entire complex and erecting a new sign along Division.


The space to be renovated has been mostly vacant in recent months. P.OB. Montgomery required the final three tenants in that part of the mall to vacate their spaces by the end of April.


One of those stores, Topps Tobacco Square, plans to reopen later this month at NorthTown Mall, four blocks south of Franklin Park Mall, owner John Topp says.


Owners of the other two stores, Something Special and Teddy Bear Fun Center, couldnt be reached for comment.


Separately, two other small retailers, Franklin Park Florist and William Grant Gallery & Framing, have decided to move from Franklin Park Mall to the Town & Country Shopping Center, an 80,000-square-foot retail center at 820 W. Francis thats anchored by a Safeway store.


John Stejer, property management and leasing agent at Dixon Investment Co., a Spokane company that owns the Town & Country center, says the two retailers plan to open in their new location at the beginning of June. Each will take a space at the Town & Country center of about 1,600 square feet, he says.


P.OB. Montgomery bought the 274,000-square-foot Franklin Park Mall in late 1998.


A two-story, 100,000-square-foot Montgomery Ward & Co. store is connected to the north end of the retail center, but is owned separately by Wards.