DURING THE PAST decade, Baltimore lost 11.5 percent of its residents. Only a handful of neighborhoods increased in population. Among them were Upper Park Heights and Roland Park, which also grew wealthier.

The Cordish Co. is now exploiting that trend. It is acquiring Reisterstown Road Plaza, a covered mall that opened in 1962 but then fell on hard times. Cordish is pouring money into revitalizing the 50-acre property.

A new Home Depot opened recently. Next to come is the first Applebee's chain restaurant in the city, a new Giant supermarket and a Marshalls department store.

"What I see around Reisterstown Road Plaza is a neighborhood solidifying," says David Cordish, pointing to an influx of Orthodox Jewish families and Russian immigrants, as well as stable African-American middle-class neighborhoods.

In a city that has been badly underserved in retail for several decades, the Plaza's facelift is a welcome development. After all, the center once had Hecht's and Stewart's as its anchor stores, a big Woolworth's, several restaurants and a popular movie theater.

While those glory days may never return, the whole Reisterstown Road corridor near the city-county line is showing a great deal of investment activity. A new Target store is about to open, a big Safeway supermarket is under construction. Catering to the brisk kosher trade is a crowded Israeli kebab restaurant.

Mr. Cordish, who lived on Slade Avenue for 22 years, said one reason for his interest in Reisterstown Road Plaza was its proximity to a Metro subway station. He thinks public transit can only help the shopping center in the future.

Reisterstown Road Plaza's turnaround should serve as an example to the Rouse Co.'s Mondawmin Mall. That early shopping center has been underperforming for decades, despite its proximity to a Metro station and bus hub. It is ripe for revitalization.

There is a lot of buying power in the city; it's just a question of finding crafty developers who know how to take advantage of it.