Initially, news that an urban retailer had bought part of the struggling Southwest Center Mall landed with a thud.

This was not what neighbors and would-be shoppers had in mind. Jimmy Jazz, a Brooklyn-based urban apparel chain, wasn't likely to lure families back to a half-vacant shopping center that has been mired in bankruptcy.

The not-so-celebrated arrival of Jimmy Jazz on the scene, coupled with City Hall's somewhat hands-off approach, made October a discouraging month for the folks still holding out hope for the long-suffering mall.

But November has brought encouraging signs at the much-discussed but seldom-visited shopping center. A recent community meeting helped convince many residents that the new owners, city officials and even U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson are actively pursuing needed upgrades for the property.

Jack Friedler, who owns the real estate arm of Jimmy Jazz, promised that new tenants are in the pipeline. He pledged to bring stability and an aggressive marketing approach to a mall that has been in decline for decades.

Friedler's game plan appears to be a good one. The challenge now will be execution.

His willingness to engage with the community, which first turned up its nose at his company, is essential. After all, the new owners must somehow persuade residents who have taken their discretionary dollars to the suburbs to return to the old Redbird Mall.

Also important is Friedler's commitment to using recommendations from the Urban Land Institute as his guide for revitalizing the mall. He called the city-commissioned study his "handbook and Bible."

Experts from the Urban Land Institute recommended actions both big and small, including launching a community planning process, creating a tax-increment-financing district, creating a mixed-use village and changing the mall's name. The panel made clear that the city's existing strategy – essentially hoping for the best – would doom the mall.

After first seeming reluctant to make any sort of financial commitment to the shopping center, the city now appears willing to consider heeding the ULI's strong suggestion that it purchase a vacant anchor store. Ideally, private dollars and benevolent developers would magically appear. But in this case, the city's involvement may be the only way to ward off undesirable development that could hasten the mall's demise.

Also encouraging was the announcement that Johnson is pursuing funding to improve access to the shopping center. Somehow, this mall at the intersection of two major roads (U.S. Highway 67 and Interstate 20) manages to be both inconveniently located and darned-near impossible to spot. Reconfigured exits and access points could do a lot for attracting drive-by traffic.

Plenty of questions have yet to be answered about the mall's long-term future. No detailed vision exists for transitioning Southwest Center Mall from a 1970s standard-issue shopping center to a more modern and vibrant version of itself. But the new owners, city officials and the congresswoman are taking the right first steps.

If they can continue to build on these early signs of progress, the mall might yet prove that reports of its death were greatly exaggerated.