Brooklynites may have preferred to keep the Dodgers, but they’re about to get a mall instead – right where a new Ebbets Field would have stood.

Developer Forest City Ratner will begin showing off its 375,000-squarefoot Atlantic Terminal Retail Complex today, two weeks before its July 25 grand opening.

The shopping center, whose signature store will be a Target, is built on the plot of land that Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley wanted to use for a new Ebbets Field before he moved the team to Los Angeles in 1958.

Located atop an underground Long Island Rail Road station, the mall is accessible by nine subway lines and four city bus routes. It is four stories high and sits next to the Atlantic Center, a 400,000-square-foot shopping plaza also built by Ratner.

A pedestrian bridge will connect the mall to the Atlantic Center, which opened in 1996. Both are part of a growing trend of putting up sprawling, suburban-style malls across the city.

The terminal mall site was under development by the city for more than 20 years, said Bruce Bender, an executive vice president at Forest City Ratner.

“It was a very complex site that was long overdue,” Mr. Bender said.

Coming in at a cost of $120 million, the mall will finish above the $90 million price tag estimated by Forest City Ratner when it announced the development in 2001. Construction began in April 2002 on land Ratner is leasing from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and LIRR.

Mr. Bender said the delays and cost overruns were due to the difficulty of building on top of an active train station. The company did not want to disrupt service, so it limited construction largely to weekends.

The Target store will dominate the mall, occupying 194,000 square feet of space over three floors. Other retailers who have leased space include the Designer Shoe Warehouse, Daffy’s, Payless Shoesource, Bath & Body Works, and Verizon. Starbucks and Mrs. Field’s Cookies will also have at least one location in the mall, and there will be a series of restaurants as well.

Anticipating a strong opening, Ratner filled only about 90% of the space, planning to lease out the remaining spots to choice retailers on the back of positive buzz for the mall, Mr. Bender said.

The opening will coincide with the completion of a refurbishment of the neighboring Atlantic Center that will include a series of freshly painted murals.

“We’re energizing the entire center,” Mr. Bender said.

The Atlantic Center had been criticized for an unwelcoming design and aesthetic, and Council Member Letitia James, a vocal opponent of Ratner’s proposed New Jersey Nets arena in Atlantic Yards, said the mall was a notable improvement.

“It’s much better than the Atlantic Center,” Ms. James said. “It’s much more open and inviting.”

Ms. James said the biggest plus for the new mall was the more than 1,000 jobs it will likely create. Her office is spearheading an effort to direct local residents to the mall for employment opportunities, she said.