Blake Hunt Ventures of Danville has partnered with ScanlanKemperBard Cos. to renovate and expand the historic Trolley Square shopping center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

It is the first joint venture between the companies.

ScanlanKemperBard of Portland, Ore., paid $38.6 million to buy the 13.5-acre property, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, from Simon Property Group of Indianapolis, said Todd Gooding, chief investment officer. Trolley Square's main building, dating back to the early 1900s, was where the city stored and repaired trolley cars. It was converted to a two-level retail mall in the 1970s.

The first phase of the redevelopment will be renovating the existing building by eliminating dead-end corridors, creating a central court and creating other efficiencies to increase the square footage of the main building from 160,000 square feet to 180,000 square feet, said Mark Blancarte, Blake Hunt's vice president of development.

Two additional phases will add another 50,000 square feet of retail space, additional underground parking and residential condominiums. The total square footage of the property, currently 232,453 square feet, will be 310,000 when all phases are complete.

Blancarte said the developers are finalizing negotiations with a national retailer for the new 50,000-square-foot building.

The first phase of redevelopment is expected to start in January 2007, and be completed that summer.

Gooding said the redevelopment will cost from $25 million to $40 million. Goldman Sachs is the lender for the project.

Trolley Square, also a Utah Historic Site, is the second-most-visited tourist site in Salt Lake City after the Mormon Tabernacle. It is 86 percent occupied with retailers including Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Restoration Hardware and the Spaghetti Factory.