A plan to tear down most of the Bedford Mall and turn it into a shopping plaza could deliver a shot of economic growth to an area that has been struggling with vacancies for years.

The project was unveiled by the developer, Emmes Asset Management Company, at a Planning Board meeting on Monday, Feb. 23.

After the redevelopment, the Bedford Mall would no longer be a mall – replaced by an L-shaped shopping plaza at 73 S. River Road with several box stores accessible from the new parking lot. The largest, a 93,500- square-foot Kohl’s department store would anchor the retail center.

Two years ago, the national retailer had considered building a store close by on Kilton Road. But it had trouble fitting it on the site, said Rick Sawyer, town planning director.

Just 80,000 square feet would remain standing at the south end of the mall. Bob’s Stores would remain. Marshalls would move to the vacated Linens N’ Things site next to Bob’s. Staples would relocate to the northern side of the new shopping plaza.

The Outback Steakhouse, which is on the mall property, would not be affected. But on the south side of the South River Road entrance, there would be a 3,000-square-foot fast-food restaurant. Mike Izbicki, chairman of the Town Council and an advocate of economic development along South River Road, praised the plan.

“It’s great news,” Izbicki said. “It’s going to hopefully pump some life into that mall and that area. It will be good for business and great for the town.” Izbicki said the mall is in a perfect location at the end of Kilton Road, which feeds traffic from a Route 101 off-ramp onto South River Road. Around the mall are the interchanges for Interstate 293, the Everett Turnpike and Route 101.

The redevelopment would turn around prime commercial property, that despite having busy highways at its front door, has been plagued with vacancies.

Today, there were nine tenants in a mall with room for 27, according to the directory.

“Clearly having a 60 percent vacancy rate isn’t good for them at this point,” Sawyer said. “I think they realized they needed to do something.”

South of the mall another redevelopment is slated for the land around Macy’s. Packard Development Corp. wants to add a supermarket and two retail buildings around the department store. The company also plans to raze part of the Quality Inn and Wayfarer Convention Center to expand the parking lot around Macy’s.

Izbicki said the two redevelopment projects would help transform South River Road. “It’s going to make the Route 3 area a destination instead of a pass-through,” he said. “It’s going to attract people to come to Bedford and spend the day shopping.”

The mall was purchased by Gateway Van Buren in March 2007 with a pledge from Emmes that it would revitalize the property in three to five years. Emmes representatives did not say how the recession might impact their plans.

“We’d like to get this started as quickly as possible,” said Bill Bond, an Emmes vice president. “Obviously the mall could use improvement and we hope to improve it.”

There are six other smaller tenants in the mall, including Michael’s School of Hair Designs and Esthetics, Papa Gino’s, and the K. Milan Salon and Spa. Michael said Emmes will work with those tenants to relocate them.

At the Planning Board meeting, most of the focus was on the design of the new retail center. Board member Harold Newberry said the plaza design, which is modeled on the Kohl’s, was “uninteresting” and “boring.” He urged Emmes to make it look more attractive, with brick and stone work as well as gables.

“I know there is a prototype Kohl’s likes to use,” member Karen McGinley added. But, “is there any effort to make this more New England? This is Kohl’s in Bedford, New Hampshire, not Kohl’s anywhere. I have to say it is pretty stark.”