The South Bay Galleria Shopping Center, located west of Hawthorne Boulevard and south of 177th Street unveiled plans for a $32 million renovation of the southern part of the shopping center.

The 11 acrea area today is home to the discount Cinema 3 theater, a Bank of America branch and a building that once housed Thrifty Drug and CompUSA stores. A fenced-off dirt lot behind the theater is all that's left to show of an old bowling alley demolished a few years ago. The owner of the center, South Bay Associates, a subsidiary of Galleria owner Forest City Commercial Group, explained that the renovation will include a nearly 110,000-square-foot complex that incorporates three anchor tenants and six to seven smaller retailers.

 for Daily Breeze

The company's goal is to start work in the second quarter of 2010 and open the new center in the third quarter of 2011, Lee said.

As the SouthBay South project heads through the approval process, Redondo Beach is eager to see the transformation of another nearby retail site: the large building abandoned earlier this year by the closure of the Expo Design Center.

That tract is owned by Home Depot, which is looking to either lease or sell all of its former Expo properties, a company spokeswoman said.

An artist's rendering of the South Bay Galleria remodel.