By January and perhaps sooner, its tile and concrete floors will be carpeted. The globes of its hanging lights have been changed, and painting is under way. Seasonal banners will be going up, and two large mobiles will be placed over its pair of fountains, which have both been thoroughly cleaned. The front will be tiled, new plants added and an $8,000 directional store marquee installed. New interior furniture is being purchased from Twists & Turns Retail Store in Roanoke, said Bill Sterrett, one of the mall's owners.

Sterrett said he would like to have all the improvements done by Christmas, but it will probably be the first of the year before they are completed.

University Mall is Blacksburg's only interior mall, and this will be its first major interior remodeling since it opened about 30 years ago, said Bill Ellenbogen, the mall's other owner.

The two businessmen bought the mall a year and a half ago for $12.6 million with financing through the Virginia Tech Foundation, which already leases 60 percent of the interior for university-related activities. Tech's math and call centers and bookstore all committed to long-term leases with rents at existing levels. Ellenbogen and Sterrett will convey the property to the foundation after 20 years from the mall's purchase date.

The mall has been open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, since the purchase. A no-smoking policy was instituted (a small smoking area was set up outside) and Blacksburg Transit added a stop at the mall entrance for its buses.

The new owners also brought back Debbie Kiser.

Kiser came to the mall 14 years ago as a maintenance worker. At that time, there were three full-time and one part-time maintenance workers as well as a manager. Over the years, various owners reduced that staff.

"The last downsizing, they took everybody but me," Kiser said.

Then the previous owner eliminated her position, but Ellenbogen and Sterrett brought her back, as manager.

"Nothing's been done to the mall since it was built, in the way of remodeling," Kiser said.

The new owners made some quick changes after their purchase. They closed the outer entrance to the Math Emporium, so the some 15,000 weekly users enter through the mall and are exposed to its stores.

The mall currently has 19 tenants and only one vacancy, where Tech Era Computers was. Computer purchases are not necessarily a walk-in business. The Printers Ink bookstore also closed, and has been replaced by two new businesses, Total Tan and Urban Expression.Mall tenantsA1 Copies

Auto Repair Service

CVS/Pharmacy

Easy Chair Coffee Shop

BB&T

Hardee's

Hunan King

Images by B

Pizza Hut

Ritz Camera One-Hour Photo

Sakurako

The Sickle Moon

Total Tan

University Bookstore Volume Two

Urban Expression

Vietnamese Teahouse

Virginia Tech Student Calling Center

Virginia Tech Math Emporium

Weight Club