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About half a dozen new retail spaces will be created when a $1 million reconstruction is finished in early October at the Oak Park Plaza shopping center on the north end of Lancaster Drive in Salem.

Rich Duncan Construction of Salem is handling the project. Duncan said the project will create entirely new storefronts for the 11 existing businesses, including Safeway. “We’re also adding a tower to bring out that corner space,” Duncan said.

The rebuilt shopping center will provide space for the additional businesses, he added.

Construction crews also tore down an abandoned 33,000-square-foot Carrows Restaurant building separate from the mall. Duncan said there are no plans to rebuild it. “The building was in pretty bad repair,” Duncan said. “Hopefully, with us kicking up all that dust, someone will get the idea of starting another restaurant on that island.”

The project began two weeks ago. “We’ve been doing some night work, so we should have everything pretty much wrapped up by Oct. 1,” Duncan said.

Shea-One LLC of Tigard is listed on Marion County building permits as the owner of the property. The architectural work is being handled by Carlson-Veit of Keizer.

The mall, built in 1976, is located inside Salem’s urban growth boundary but is actually located outside the city limits in the unincorporated area of Hayesville.