Young and bubbly, Ashley Albers walks through a shopping center that she describes with soft words. There is a clean, modern feeling about this mall.

There are specialty ceramics, real wood veneers, some high-end finishes. Natural light drenches the mall in sunshine on brilliant fall shopping days and causes delicate shadows to fall on real bamboo floors. No laminate flooring here.

Ms. Albers has come from Southern California to manage East Hills Shopping Center on the tail end of its $131 million makeover.

The renovation — helped by more than $46 million in public fund titles — aims to attract new tenants and keep St. Joseph shoppers from going to Kansas City. The expansion added space for about 30 new stores and restaurants.

Total retail space is 625,000 square feet, but occupancy is hard to judge because all outside spaces were left raw to build-to-suit for new tenants.

The difficulty that exists now for Ms. Albers is the same for managers at high-end and discount malls around the country. National retailers are spooked about opening a new location in a bad economy. “It’s a little hard finding a prom date right now,” she said.

Before moving to St. Joseph this summer, she managed two Orange County malls that were five miles apart. Shoppers at Laguna Hills Mall are mostly stroller moms and tourists. The Shops of Mission Viejo is catty-corner to a retirement community, and has typically older shoppers.

In St. Joseph, Ms. Albers is managing the only retail mall in nearly 50 miles. Her demographic is far less segmented than in California.

“St. Joe and East Hills really needs to appeal to everybody. We need to bring in a mix of both lower-end and higher-end and have them work together,” she said. She cites a growing mall trend of designer stores like Nordstrom opening near big retailers like Target, something she says “never would have happened years ago.”

The mall is anchored by department stores J.C. Penney, Sears and Dillard’s. Victoria’s Secret, the first store to signal its intent to join in the new East Hills, pulled out of the deal earlier this year. They cited a need to be strategic about where they open new stores.

Ms. Albers is keeping discussions close to the vest on any new incoming major stores until an agreement has been inked.

Right now, she says seven seasonal retailers are lined up for the holidays, and expects “coming soon” signs to go up. Ms. Albers also is trying to step up the mall’s foot traffic.

She is doing that through more community events at the mall and promoting the mall’s new family amenities, like a new carousel, a soft play area and family restrooms.

“The mall is doing fine. We’re not going anywhere,” Ms. Albers said. “We’re going to pull through, and we’re going to be poised for when the economy does turn around and stores begin expanding.”

Ahmad Safi can be reached at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.