Aug. 17--The Belk store in Hanes Mall is knee deep in renovations.

This is the first major makeover for the department store in 10 years.

David Brazeau, a vice president and regional manager for Belk, declined to give an exact figure but said that Belk Inc., a retailer with headquarters in Charlotte, will spend several million dollars on the project, touching all three floors of the store with a fresh look and new and expanded assortments of merchandise.

"Customers will see a dramatic change," he said.

The store will remain open during the work.

At 235,839 square feet, Belk is the largest of the mall's department stores. Other major retailers are Sears, Dillard's, J.C. Penney, Macy's and Dick's Sporting Goods.

Dennis Cerny, the mall's general manager, said that it's a good sign for the entire mall that Belk is investing in its store.

"If you look at a natural retail cycle in five to 10 years, unless you reinvent yourself, sales start to plateau," Cerny said. "Upon re-invention, there is an automatic surge in sales."

He said that the mall turns over about 20 tenants a year, changing the mix of merchandise to rekindle customer interest.

"All the department stores own their respective buildings and adjacent parking lots, so it's important for them to keep pace as well," he said.

The slowing economy makes it tough for department stores and other retailers to operate now, so offering something new is a strategy that can help get customers in the door.

"Department stores are struggling because mall traffic across the board is down," said Britt Beemer, the chairman of America's Research Group in Charleston, S.C. "Our numbers say that traffic in malls this year has been down 10 percent to 14 percent over last year across the U.S. When traffic is down that much, it's pretty hard to have any sales increases because you're seeing fewer people."

Beemer said that Belk is a better-run department store than some stores in terms of staffing its stores and having people around to answer customer questions.

"Belk has done a good job by not vacating their home department because so many department stores are just overgrown apparel stores.

Belk has 300 stores in 16 Southern states. The retailer reported sales of $817.3 million for its first quarter compared with sales of $904.5 million for the same period in 2007. When the results were released in May, the company cited a difficult economic environment that affected consumer spending in its markets for the decrease.