Strip malls popping up all over

Business Today

Get out your wallets, because there are more than 45,000 shopping centers in the United States -- and 95 percent are strip malls.

In this area, the newest strip malls are on North Sprigg Street in Cape Girardeau, and in front of the Wal-Mart Supercenter, along Highway 61 in Jackson.

Across the country, many strip malls are being built near Wal-Marts. The malls have tenants such as Dollar Tree, Fashion Bug, Cato's, Shoe Show, beauty salons and small cafes.

Cape Girardeau has a number of strip centers. The Town Plaza was built in early 1960s. The Heritage Square strip center was built about five years ago.

More recent strips operations have been added in Cape West Business Park, Silver Springs Road and along William Street near Interstate 55.

The concept of developing a shopping center away from a metropolitan city's downtown is attributed to J. C. Nichols of Kansas City.

Nichols' Country Club Plaza opened in 1922, as a business district for a large scale residential development.

In 1956, Southdale Center in Edina, Minn. opened the first fully-enclosed mall, with a two-level design. It had central air and heat, a comfortable common area a couple of big angle stores.

Southdale is considered to be the first modern regional mall.

By the mid 1960s, there were 7,600 shopping centers in the U.S., including the many strip centers serving new housing development in the 1950s and 1960s.

By 1972, the number of shopping centers had doubled, to 13,174, and the 1980s saw an unparalleled period of growth in the shopping center industry, with the appearance of 16,000 new centers.

Factory outlet centers joined the fastest-growing segments of the shopping center industry in the 1990s. Now, there are about 285 of the outlet centers in the U.S.

Shopping centers have been an integral part of the economic and social fabric of their communities.

In 2000, more than 197 million adults visited various shopping centers in the U.S., and sales were estimated at $1.14 trillion.

At the end of 2000, there were 45,025 shopping centers. Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky are among the top 20 states in leasable space.