COUNTRY CLUB CENTRE, a strip-format shopping center northeast of the city proper, was the capital's first regional-class complex. An open-air mall section was completed in November 1960. In the previous month, the first stores in SOUTHGATE CENTER had opened their doors. This was the city's very first mall-type shopping venue.

The interior mall craze came to town in early 1968, with three of the region's open-air shopping centers having been roofed-in by 1971. Only two of these complexes still operate with covered mallways.

SOUTHGATE CENTER / PLAZA, experienced one of the first demallings in the nation (done between 1984 and 1986). COUNTRY CLUB CENTRE was demalled in 1991-1992.

The city's first fully-enclosed and climate-controlled retail complex, FLORIN CENTER / MALL, endured two decades of decline before being given a wrecking ball renovation in the summer of 2006. It has been redeveloped as an open-air "towne centre".