What was once a dying shopping mall now is becoming one of the Hattiesburg area's biggest centers for jobs.

Construction is now under way inside the Cloverleaf Center that will expand the Walmart.com call center from about 43,000 square feet to 65,000 square feet, property manager Steve Floyd said.

The approximately $1 million project will add space for about 200 associate work stations, two new training areas, conference rooms and other facilities, Floyd said.

The existing space currently has about 400 work stations where employees, known as associates, work around the clock answering telephone calls that are generated through the Walmart.com Web site, Floyd said.

The expansion will accommodate 600 associates, said Amy Collela, a spokeswoman with the Brisbane, Calif.-based company. She could not say if that would be 600 associates per shift or what kind of employment levels would be expected after the expansion.

"We're expanding the Walmart.com call center to accommodate growth in our online business," Collela said in an e-mailed statement.

"They will be our largest office tenant," Floyd said.

The addition leaves only about 4 percent of the center's 346,000 square feet unoccupied. That 96 percent occupancy rate is up dramatically since the years after the majority of the mall's businesses moved west with Turtle Creek Mall's opening.

"I remember when we were at 20 percent capacity, and we were wondering what we would do with this building," he said. "You can close them down and make them warehouses or you can think of an alternate use, and that's what we've tried to do."

The total Walmart.com space will be nearly double the size of the Cloverleaf's newest tenant, the software development center for BearingPoint, an international business consulting firm.

BearingPoint, which began operating in the center about a year ago, still is working its way toward a goal of filling about 250 computer science jobs in two years.

Ben Teague, the vice-president of economic development for the Area Development Partnership, said a focused effort on technology-based job growth is good for the area that was once a bustling commercial district.

"The idea is to create a business center with a high number of jobs per square foot as opposed to sales per square foot," he said.

"Anytime you get that number of jobs clustered together you start to see an overall redevelopment of the area that might include new eateries and other businesses," Teague said.

Sweet Peppers Deli, which opened its doors at the Lincoln Road and Broadway Drive intersection this week, is a prime example.

"We hit on the area and just realized it was underserved by restaurants like us," said restaurant owner Clark Callahan. "We've got a lot of fast food, but very few casual restaurants like ours. And the traffic pattern is very good."

Callahan, who said business is booming at the new location, said the Walmart.com expansion is a favorable sign for future business and would like to see more home construction follow in south Hattiesburg.

"It's an excellent opportunity for job creation, and the more opportunity that is created, the better it is all around," he said.

Floyd said upon completion of the Walmart.com project, he hopes to renovate the 12,000-square-foot former cinema into office space and lure another business to that site.

Walmart.com took over the space from Convergys, an independent call center company that handled Wal-Mart's Internet calls prior to the formation of Walmart.com as an independent company, Floyd said.