In an interview with the World on Friday, Barr said after the old building is demolished, construction would not begin on the new building “until we sign leases.”

She didn’t offer a timeline for when the building will be built, how many tenants it would accommodate, or how close it would be in size to the current 50,000-square-foot building.

“It (the building) had just outlived its useful life,” Barr said. “It’s an exciting time for Utica Square.”

She said there’s a feeling of renewed commitment to the outdoor shopping center, which, built in the 1950s, is one of the oldest in the country.

Helmerich & Payne is looking at national and local tenants, she said, keeping with the center’s strong tradition of housing local businesses.

Barr added that demolition and construction are being “strategically and intensely planned” so as not to inconvenience current businesses and customers too much.

“We’re not going to rush into this,” Barr said.

In the waning days of Miss Jackson’s and Petty’s, teary-eyed customers streamed in to say goodbye to the people and building that housed so many memories.