The Region : May Co. in Galleria

The defunct Buffums department store in the Glendale Galleria shopping mall will be demolished and a May Co. department store the size of two football fields will be built in its place, city officials said.

The Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday approved preliminary design plans for the store, which will be built at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Colorado Street. It will be three stories high, instead of the current two-story building.

Completion is expected by fall, 1993, company officials said.

The project marks the first major reconstruction of the exterior of the galleria, opened in 1976 as Glendale’s first downtown redevelopment project.

St. Louis-based May Stores bought the site in December after Buffums went bankrupt last year.