Through the Small Business Administration Salaries and Expenses Account. In the past several years Eastland mall, a 1.1 million square foot regional shopping center, has declined to today where only one of the possible four anchor stores remains fully operational and 30 percent of the mall stores are vacant. This is due to several factors, including the fact that big box stores are moving into the mall’s market area, the current development of other shopping centers to serve the growing urban fringe, and household income in the mall’s market area is not rising as quickly as the rest of Charlotte. The City of Charlotte has taken several steps to address the decline of Eastland Mall and taken preliminary steps to implement various renewal plans. The funding would be used to perform a more detailed analysis and design of the civic/community center and other parts of redevelopment plan as required by the private sector development partner for this project. The plan for the completed project will include 275,00 square feet of retail, 300 residential units, 15 acres of open space and 10 acres for civic/community center. This revitalization would provide for increased economic opportunities within the City, and recreate a regional shopping and residential center for the City.