Tom Barton covers breaking news for The Island Packet. He is a Davenport, Iowa, native and 2007 graduate of Iowa State University. Before coming to the Island Packet he worked as a reporter at The Des Moines Register. He moved to Bluffton in July 2010. | 
Brian Heffernan covers the Town of Hilton Head Island for The Island Packet. He is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. | While much of the Mall at Shelter Cove lays in rubble, its replacement stood upright on a poster board Tuesday.
The Town of Hilton Head Island’s Design Review Board looked at drawings and color swatches of the upcoming 285,000 sq. ft. outdoor shopping center, but took no action on approving the plans.
The Design Review Board will see the second half of the plans — the landscaping and walkway materials — at a meeting next month before taking a final vote on the design.
Board members generally praised the first half of the plan, created by Planning Architecture Interiors, an Atlanta-based firm, for its detailed and varied storefront facades, but said they would like to see changes to the center’s bookend properties: a Kroger grocery store and the mall’s existing Belk department store.
They asked for more design features to break up Kroger’s long exterior walls and more to hide its loading dock that will face Broad Creek.
But the biggest complaints involved the Belk store.
“My big concern with this is how very nice things look here and how Belk continues with that outdated facade,” said board member Jake Gartner, adding: “I mean, the gas station looks better than Belk.”
“I think they’ll made their changes in due time,” said Mark Senn, president of the development firm Blanchard & Calhoun, which is leading the project.
He said the department store did not approve proposed changes to its facade.
Attempts to reach representatives from Belk were unsuccessful Tuesday.
The Belk store will be the only retailer that was in the old mall that will be in the new center.
The development will also eventually include 220 apartments, many of which will be built along Broad Creek where the Shelter Cove Community Park is now, according to the Shelter Cove Towne Centre website.
The plans will also be voted on by the Shelter Cove Architectural Review Board before the town’s review board gives the project a final vote.
Follow reporter Brian Heffernan at twitter.com/IPBG.