Major retailer Harris Scarfe will be the first tenant in the top section of the Mate’s building since the mid-1980s.

Through traffic in Kiewa Street between Dean and Smollett streets will be closed from today with first stage works being the $90,000 replacement of the pedestrian crossing.

Once it is finished in mid-July, Kiewa Street will be completely shut to allow for roadworks including the reduction to one lane in either direction between Dean and Smollett streets.

Angle parking will be created along Kiewa Street, including the front of the Mate’s building with landscaping, kerb and channel and drainage works to be completed before the end of November.

Construction on the Mate’s building is also expected to begin in mid-July and be completed early next year.

The Harris Scarfe redevelopment is part of a $3.2 million project proposed in early April by Crowe Horwath’s property arm.

It also includes redevelopment of land next door, which was previously owned by Proton Developments.

Another retailer, Store, has been locked in for the top floor of the newly created building which will also provide access to Harris Scarfe.

Proton sold the Mate’s building in 2011 to an investor group associated with WHK, which has since changed its name to Crowe Horwarth.

A year earlier it was passed in at auction for $13 million.

The 1450 square metres of land between the Mate’s expansion and Target at 482 Kiewa Street has been advertised for sale for $1.69 million.

It is currently a car park.

Twelve months ago Albury Council ripped up a development deed entered into with Proton in 2007.

Proton planned to spend $8.5 million constructing shops and off-ices on two levels on the land between Target and the Mate’s building.

The move was thwarted by the onset of the global financial crisis.